Fighters of a New Day
by Thrythlind
Summary: It is at least two decades after the times of troubles that rocked two worlds. And now, the children of that time have to make their way through the world.
1. Children Left

Generations come in the shape of tiny new arrivals that make their appearances in events often termed happy whether those involved consider it such or not. This was usually the case with any sort of happy event. Granted, to be sure, it was because happiness was so much more often the prime emotion involved than almost anything else.

Discounting, of course, the immense level of fear that usual came with any event likely to produce major changes to the way one's life has so far run. But even the character of those fears, when connected to so-called happy events, were often connection to losing or otherwise screwing up said happy event.

There was a world, much like several others, where a succession of these happy events came to the lives of three couples.

There was a fourth couple who, while important to the story as a whole, were primarily important in that the arrival of their first child triggered the series of events that would follow. Though, really, there was no fault, blame or even responsibility could be laid at their feet.

Rather it was the response one of the other three couples had to this fourth couple's child that would start everything.

For one set, this was not their first child. However, that first child, impressive as both parents thought he was, had not yet produced a child with his wife and they had started to fear that their line would end with him. Thus, without informing their first child or his (perceived to be) barren wife, they started trying for another marker in the game of life.

For them, the happiness involved was a rather meager thing of practicality and use. Likewise the fear, what little there was of it, was a selfish one of repeated failures, and failure to repeat success. What they understood of pain was purely physical and shallow. In addition, there was a feint disappointment involved when the child in question turned out to be female.

For such tinder-dry hearts to produce such great burning passions in their offspring is a mystery that is difficult to comprehend.

Still, it was another shot at greatness, and this time it was a child that both wife and husband could take part in the molding of.

When a second happy event occurred four years later and also introduced a new girl to the world, the disappointment was much greater and accompanied by the fact that this third child was the last this couple was likely to produce. They left the responsibility for their youngest to the elder daughter, still barely in her fourth year.

Of all the skills and ideas they taught their children, those that were most important, and most taken to heart, were those they had only the most shallow belief in:

The purpose of life was to grow strong.

The purpose of strength was to protect those that had less than you.

Everything was an opportunity for training.

And they still never told their son that he had sisters.

For the second couple, their early life was so lacking in attention and recognition that the concepts of marriage and children were fairy tales of the vaguest cloth. They had a concept of the man or woman that they would end up marrying, though only one of them ended up correct in their initial aspirations.

In the course of their life, they had achieved greatness in their own right. They knew pain deeply, and not merely the physical pain that came with pitched battle.

They knew the pain of rejection.

The pain of loneliness.

The pain of loss.

The pain of betrayal.

The pain of discovery.

The pain of growth.

The pain of recovery.

The pain of responsibility.

Their first child was accompanied by a hectic collection of fear and hope and determination.

…a determination that their child's life would be better than their own…

…a hope to see their child grow strong, healthy and happy…

…a fear for all the dangers that could beset their child along the way.

The fear was less prevalent with their second child, four years later, but no less powerful. It sat in the background niggling them with fears of what such a dangerous world could do now that they had two young ones to fear for.

The third couple was united across worlds of difference.

The world of life.

The world of death.

They were brought together by the most unusual of circumstances, and kept together by the parade of battle and emergency that followed.

A child between them was the most unlikeliest of miracles.

Doubly so in that such a pairing had already resulted in the man of the couple.

They likewise had seen much pain from their lives of battle.

Though with their nature, they did not feel the same loss that came with ordinary death. For them, that normal sort very much was merely a passing from one existence to the next. However, rare though it was, they had suffered through the loss of friends and loved ones as well.

There was a destruction beyond death, so it seemed.

They were an odd pair, seeming gruff and uncaring, but their was warm care and soothing passion underneath their prickly exteriors, and as much as their sarcasm sparked off of each other, so to did that fire rebound, and that cool wind grow in binding strength.

The child between them was a wonderful miracle, but one they would not share for long.

The father died not long after, and with rare exceptions, the dead were supposed to remain on one side of the divide and the living on the other. With both parents being dead, both were called to their "proper" worlds, and the only contact they had with their daughter was through those messengers and guardians assigned to the region their she lived in.

Not so unusual a thing for a girl to send word to her dead parents.

Much more unusual for the dead parents to answer.

The fourth couple included the eldest child, the son, of the first couple. It was two years after the birth of their second sister, whom they had no knowledge of yet, that their own child was born. An event delayed by the couple's eagerness to see the world and close some loose ends of their young lives before introducing a child to the world.

As soon as their son was born, they sent a letter to the parents of the husband.

A letter sent more out of politeness than anything else.

The husband's parents, for reasons already made obvious in the description of how they saw their children, were not welcome in the neighborhood of the younger couple.

Had they known that the sister's existed and what the purpose for that existence was, they'd likely have thought carefully about sending that letter.

But, then, had they known of the sisters, they'd likely never have left them to be raised by those two shallow and dry hearts without close observation.

In any case, that letter found the first couple, and, in the space of a few lines, their daughters had become…

…extra.

*****

"Excellent!" Genma Saotome declared loudly upon reading the message. "I knew the boy had it in him all the time."

"Oh," Nodoka said. "My boy is so manly that he can even sire children where the land is barren."

It was rather fortunate that Soun Tendo was not present to hear that last comment. Had either Ranma or Akane been there to hear it, things wouldn't have been much better.

The two had left the area of the dojo for more reasons than just have some privacy. Though they'd never admit that they, or at least Genma, were not quite welcome around their son and his family.

Sitting inside the room and watching the elder Saotomes celebrate were two young girls.

The eldest, with black hair and blue eyes, couldn't have been older than ten years old, and she sat seiza staring ahead happy that the message she had received on her village errands was pleasing to her parents.

Occasionally, she'd glance to the side where her six-year old sister, a cute blonde girl, was yawning in a bored manner and threatening to try again to come out of the demanding seiza posture, which she was only vaguely maintaining anyway.

Whenever the blonde's posture started to slip, the black-haired one quickly and quietly shook her head. Her eyebrows would point up nervously as she bit her lip and glanced toward their mother cautiously.

Eyes narrowed shortly before they rolled, the younger blonde nevertheless kept herself at least looking like she was sitting properly. Drawing a nearly soundless sigh of relief from the elder.

The black-haired girl waited to be addressed, and hoped to hear more about her mysterious and seemingly god-like elder brother. If she had known the message she had picked up in town had been sent from her brother, she might have been tempted to peek at it.

Might.

Though as she had that thought, she flushed nervously and quickly beat that hint of disobedience to her mother down.

Almost as if the woman could hear the thought, she turned to glance at the girls, consideringly.

The younger blonde was seemingly unaware of the look, but her older sister swallowed slightly.

"Ryoko, Joseibi," she said, smiling in the way that always made Ryoko hope for a ray of the sun that was her mother's love and pride.

The fact that Joseibi's name was included was both encouraging and nerve-racking. On the one hand, perhaps their mother was about to shine that acceptance on her younger sister, finally. On the other hand, perhaps Joseibi was about to do something to pull the other side of their mother to the surface.

"This is an occasion for celebration," she said. "You've become aunts."

"The Saotome line is secure," Genma declared happily standing up and practically dancing.

Joseibi watched this with a growing sense of impatience and irritation. The only reason the blonde hadn't gotten up and left yet was that the last time she had done that, things had gone badly for Ryoko and Ryoko was about the only one in her family that did anything to take care of her.

"Wai!" Ryoko declared, hands going to her mouth in likewise celebration.

"Now, Ryoko," Nodoka said, a trace of disapproval entering her voice. "The sentiment is appreciated but that is not the behavior of a young lady of our line."

"Hai, Okaasama," Ryoko said, cringing at the admonishment.

That had brought attention on her well enough, and a glimpse through downcast eyes said that Joseibi had shifted back to a true seiza and their mother hadn't noticed she'd been out of it.

"This frees up much concern," Nodoka said, sighing. "Some measures are no longer necessary. We should see about advantageously placing the two of you."

Ryoko blinked at that, not quite understanding what had just been said. She understood that her mother was speaking of marriage, but to date she had been instucted that she was not in a position to be choosy. She would have to find a man willing accept his wife's name.

In a blink the black-haired girl realized what had changed: she was no longer needed to carry on the family name. The realization left her with a curious sensation that she couldn't quite identify.

"Ah, before that, Nodoka-dear," Genma said quickly. "Perhaps now is the ideal time to give our daughter some real training."

Ryoko blinked again and fought the urge to widen her eyes. There wasn't likely to be anything of that, her mother had never consented for Genma to give them any training away from the house. She had always wanted to go on a training journey such as her brother had done, as other martial artists she had heard of had done, but Nodoka was always so concerned with safety.

"Indeed," Nodoka said after a moment's thought, much to Ryoko's surprise. "Some advanced training might make her twice as appealing to a powerful family." Ryoko's eyes were wet with cheerful tears as she came to the conclusion that her mother was going to reward her for her long dilligence. She was going to be allowed to pursue her interest in the martial arts.

"Perhaps it would be good to take Joseibi as well," Nodoka suggested.

Ryoko blinked again, eyes drying.

"Okaasama..." she said quietly.

"What is it, daughter?" Nodoka asked, turning toward the girl, smiling beatifically, but in a way that left little doubt that she was merely trying to disguise her own dislike for the interruption.

"Joseibi-chan is not interested in the Art," she said hesitantly, ashamed that she would force her mother to have to hide such disapproval.

"Nonsense," Nodoka said. "My family are samurai, your father's are martial artists. The Art is in our blood."

Joseibi avoided snorting, even at six-years old and, as Ryoko said, less than interested in the Art, she knew more of martial arts than Nodoka did.

"But..." Ryoko said.

"However," Nodoka said. "I suppose it would not be any harm to see to some of her education myself."

Ryoko froze, staring down at the ground and shaking minutely.

Nodoka stood up and started walking toward the side of the room, toward where the family sword was.

Joseibi felt a trickle of fear as the woman did that. She wasn't yet certain of everything the sword imported, but she did know that Ryoko's joy from a kind word from...well, almost anybody...but especially their mother was more than matched by her sister's fear of Nodoka reaching for the sword.

And if Joseibi felt a trickle of fear, then Ryoko...

The younger girl glanced toward her elder sister and flinched on seeing the orange fire swirling in Ryoko's eyes and the smouldering where the black-haired girl's hands touched the floor.

"I'll go," Joseibi said in a casual way accompanied by a fake yawn.

Ryoko looked up in surprise and the fire was already dying from her eyes, but there was still fear there.

Fear for Joseibi mostly.

Nodoka turned to look in that calculated look of sunny approval that worked so well on the blonde's elder sister. Their father, however, was seeming rather uncertain about all of this.

Genma glanced toward the girls and thought seriously.

Ryoko, he had plans for. In addition to being a remarkably obedient child, unlike certain other children, the girl was a genius. He had never seen a code that could confuse her for even a minute. She had read some of the most deviously encoded training scrolls off like she was reading a grocery list. That instinctive code-breaking ability made her an incredible tool for the acquisition of techniques.

Joseibi, however, had Ranma's disobedient streak in full, Ryoko was the only one she even somewhat listened to, with no hint of either Ryoko or Ranma's genius for the fighting arts. Of what use could she be...

Genma eyed the sword behind Nodoka and decided not to risk saying anything. "Then it is decided," Nodoka said. "Husband, you must swear that our daughters will make excellent scions of our combined blood."

"Indeed, Nodoka-dear," he responded. "I swear it on my li...honor."

Ryoko looked to Joseibi briefly and then turned a cheerful smile on to their parents.

"I shall count upon you, husband," Nodoka said enthusiastically.

*****

Naruto walked down the street with Hinata at his side. Their son was at hers and their daughter was on Naruto's shoulders. The laughter and cheer was clear on their face as they enjoyed just being with each other.

A family enjoying the times of peace that they had fought and bled for fifteen years past.

People smiled and were pleased to see them as they passed.

They had achieved many great things, but this was the greatest of them.

They had achieved what would be considered by many a more or less normal life.

Even though their situation did have its quirks.

The blonde girl on Naruto Uzumaki's shoulders giggled and hopped down to the ground suddenly with a giggle and looked up with her six-year-old face as she started forming hand signs and split into two little girls.

"Let's play ninja!" she shouted happily in stereo and suddenly two identical little girls were scattering in either direction.

"Kuren! Stop showing off," the boy, hair purple and spiky, ten years old, complained.

His peers had pointed out several times that she hadn't yet entered the academy and already could use the bunshin. There were predictions that she would reach the kage bunshin state by the time she left the academy, while he hadn't even managed to use his byakugan yet.

"Let her play, Jiraiya," Naruto said warmly as he followed after his daughter's clones with some of his own. Half letting her play, half watching for her safety.

"Don't worry," Hinata said as she watched her husband and daughter play back and forth across the street ahead of them. "Sometimes it takes longer for us to find what we're good at. Your father and I were graduated from the academy before found our skills."

"She doesn't have to show off," Jiraiya repeated, mouth firm.

"It's not showing off," Hinata said. "It's playing. I remember someone coming home and substituting himself for every piece of furniture in sight for two days after learning the jutsu."

"Yeah," Jiraiya said, embarrassed.

As they were talking, Hinata noted ahead as a black-haired girl in spectacles walked around in vague, uncertain directions holding a little yellow fox kit in a bundle of loose clothes. She had a bulky backpack for her age, and two others weren't much further away, leaning against a park wall near a bench, and she occasionally started wandering back that way. The bokken at the young girl's side indicated that she was training in the martial arts, but Hinata didn't recognize her from among the students at the academy.

"Do you know her, Jiraiya?" she asked her son quietly.

"No," he answered. "I don't think I've ever seen her before."

Naruto had noticed as well, but one of his clones had already indicated that he was staying with Kuren. A serious cast to her face, Hinata started walking forward quietly patting her son on the back and indicating him to follow.

"Hello there," Hinata said as she reached the young girl, about the same age as Jiraiya. "Who are you?"

The black-haired girl flinched and glanced up nervously. For a moment, Hinata could have sworn that she'd seen the girl's blue eyes flash to brilliant orange.

"Ano…" the girl said in a long, drawn out second that easily broadcast her nervousness.

Then she looked at the fox in her hands, the little creature seemed determinedly unhappy. After a moment of obviously uncertain thought, the black-haired girl set the fox on her shoulder and then bowed…very carefully.

"I am R..ryoko S..s..saotome of the Mu..s..sabetsu Ka..ka…kakuto S..s..saotome-Ryu," she said, and then taking the fox back into a cradle formed by her arms.

Musabetsu Kakuto Saotome-Ryu?

The girl was from a martial artist family, judging by the packs, a wandering family. She wasn't shinobi. So what was she doing…

Hinata's eyes widened slightly as she realized the import of this.

A technique thief.

Wandering martial artists traveled and sought new styles to learn. The most well regarded, and often the strongest, sought to earn the respect of those they learned from, and some of those had formed the foundation for Konoha Taijutsu, but such martial artists would have made themselves known to the guards and waited to be allowed in the village.

A creditable martial artist would not have left a child, disciple or daughter, alone in a strange city, but rather arranged for the shinobi to care for her while dealing with the taijutsu specialists of the city.

"Gomen nasai," the girl said quietly. "I…I need some…hot water, d..do you know where I…I can get some?"

"Hot water?" Hinata asked.

The little girl nodded, biting her lip.

Hinata laid her hand on the back of her son, who was about to complain about being treated like a child when he made sense of how her finger was moving against his back. He waited patiently for her to finish the message she was writing as she chatted comfortingly with the girl in front of her.

"Are your parents here?" Hinata asked.

"My father and imouto-chan," the girl said, holding up her fox. "Sh…she's...she is, she is. SHE IS," there was a haste and urgency to the way the girl had corrected her speech that made part of Hinata's gut curl. "She is why I need the hot water."

Hinata vaguely wondered who the third pack belonged to if the fox was 'imouto-chan', but hadn't noticed any signs of deception in the black-haired girl's eyes.

"Did your father bring you hear? What does he look like?" Hinata asked.

"He is…big," a hesitancy, probably the man was fat, "and…wears a cloth on his head," bald. "And he wears glasses like mine."

The glasses in question were held to the girls ears with string rather than a full frame.

"People usually get mad at him at a lot," Ryoko said nervously.

Hinata patted her son on the back and he darted ahead to find one of Naruto's clones and spread the information. The black-haired Saotome girl watched him leave and bit her lip.

"I just put him in trouble, did I not?" she asked, eyes definitely flashing with orange fire now. "Father says I…I…should not talk so much. I do not mean to. It is not hi..his fault th..that I talk too much."

Hinata felt like strangling the girl's father should she see him at the moment.

"Don't worry about it, dear," she said smiling as gently as she could, and the orange fire receded a little. "Kuren! Jiraiya, let's go find this little girl some hot water for her Imouto-chan."

As the woman herded the children toward a restaurant, she watched as Naruto's clones darted away, some to carry the news, others to start the search. Hinata paused a moment to trigger her byakugan and noted something even more chilling to her at the moment than the foundling girl's behavior.

Turning to look at her "son" she saw something else entirely. And a few seconds later, as it burst into smoke to reveal a chair, everyone else knew what happened as well.

Worry piercing her heart, Hinata created a small squad of clones herself, which dashed into the streets even as she herself had to stay with the other children.

"Jiraiya," she whispered to herself. "Now's not the time for you to get into trouble." Then she turned down to the two girls and smiled comfortingly before going to the attendant. "Can I get some hot water please?"

*****

It was luck that led Jiraiya Uzumaki to find Genma Saotome as the old martial artist was discovered by some of the ninja of the village, making off with several scrolls.

It was not good luck.

Genma Saotome was a coward and bully. He had an elevated image of his own heroism and lived vicariously through the exploits of his son. However, he was a master martial artist and devious in ways beyond what most people, even shinobi, had encountered.

Had Hinata not spoken to Ryoko, then he might have easily gotten in and out of the village with little immediate fluff. As it was, he was considering using the umisenken to break contact.

Jiraiya should have noted by the way the man tossed about chunin in his path that he was more than a match for a ten year old student still in the academy, but he was full of his father's determination, and didn't let such realistic views cloud his judgment.

As he moved into a jumping kick, Genma easily shoved him aside, sending the boy sprawling to the ground.

"Hmph, the ninjas here are so weak," Genma muttered. "Not sure why I should bother with their techniques."

"Watch who you're calling weak!" a growling voice roared out as one of the blonde clones that had been harassing him landed and swung out with a fist.

Genma idly snorted and ducked under the attack to snap his own punch into the clone. No matter how skilled and powerful the original, such contact was always enough for the clone. Only this time, he didn't receive a puff of air, but just a bare grunt before being tossed across the field of battle.

Genma realized in quick order, that this last fighter was no clone, but the original, and judging by his facial expression, the man was far angrier than any of his clones had been. A glance toward the purple-haired boy who struggling to stand up told him why.

"Oh, is that spoiled whelp your son?" Genma asked.

A wordless snarl was all the answer as Naruto charged forward.

Genma was also old and Naruto was powerful, in the same league as Ranma had reached since defeating the phoenix god. Reluctant as he was to do so, there was only one way that he was getting out of this mess. The Saotome Final Technique wasn't enough by itself yet, he'd need to cut his way free first.

"Kijin Gun-Dai Ranbu!" Genma shouted loudly as he went into a whirling dance and launched sickle shaped arcs of destruction in ever direction about him, forcing all the shinobi trying to corner him to seek shelter.

Naruto himself almost muscled his way through the vacuum slashes toward the old man, but noticed one of the of the slashes heading for his son, who still hadn't recovered from the hard throw he'd taken earlier.

Altering his trajectory, Naruto dashed ahead, trying to beat the vacuum blade to its target, noting as he did, that one of the thief's claimed scrolls was caught on the edge of the blade and, rather than be fully sliced through, it was being slowly slashed in half.

That was a sealing scroll, not a technique scroll.

Whatever was within had been sealed away and in moments would be released.

The desperate ninja twirled through the kage bunshin hand signs and a line of clones whipped out to slam into the vacuum blade one after another until it had been dissipated just shy of Jiraiya.

Naruto and the one remaining clone sighed in relief as the battered sealing scroll fluttered to the ground between the clone and Jiraiya…

…and the last thread gave way.

The burst of energy washed over Jiraiya and the clone alike and then was gone, leaving a large circular nothingness behind.

Eyes wide and disbelieving, Naruto shakingly turned to look for Genma, but the old thief had already fled into the Umisenken while everyone was distracted.

With his son gone and the enemy that had done it vanished, he had nothing to direct his action against or toward. The shock worked over him in a slow creep over seconds that turned to minutes.

And just before the howl, he was struck by a sudden image…memory…of that last clone.

*****

Jiraiya looked around at the pieces of Konohagakure that appeared with him and his father's clone in the city that surrounded him.

The clone looked around fiercely for a moment and then grabbed someone nearby.

"Where is this?" he demanded.

"What?" the innocent shopkeeper said.

"Where," Naruto's clone snapped. "Is. This?"

"R…rukongai…" the man said. "1st district."

"Something wrong here?" a gruff voice asked.

The clone turned to see the tall, orange-haired man with the huge sword at his back and a bag of groceries in his hand.

"I need to know where this place is," the clone said. "So that when I dissipate, the real me can come get my son."

The clone pointed to Jiraiya who stood up nervously now.

"How'd you get here?" the orange-haired man asked, face serious.

"A madman with a destructive distraction," the clone said. "Look, I'm just a clone, pop me and the real me knows what I know."

"Okay," the orange-haired man said. "But it ain't going to be that easy?"

"Why's that?" Naruto's clone asked dangerously.

"Because that kid there isn't going to be strong enough to make the normal return trip," the other said, pointing at Jiraiya. "We'll have to set something up."

"What, I'm strong!" Jiraiya protested.

"Quiet squirt," the man in the black robes said. "Grown ups are talking. The living don't get over hear easy, or go back. Trust me, I did it myself a few times as a kid."

"The living…" Naruto said, hesitantly. "So this is…"

"The next world," the orange-haired man said. "Now, he's not supposed to be here yet, and neither are you. But I have a kin still back your side of things…shouldn't be to hard to arrange…"

A rock came out of nowhere and slashed through the blonde-haired clone sending into a puffing cloud of smoke.

"Woo!" a boisterous voice smashed. "That's a pretty flimsy Ryoka, eh Ichigo."

With a twitching eyebrow, Ichigo walked over to the kid that had just been left behind and handed him the groceries.

"Hold these will ya, kid?" he asked before turning to the source of the voice. "Ganju, were you born stupid?! Or did you just blow yourself up too many times?!"

"What?!" Ganju demanded. "I get rid of one lowsy troublemaker and you're threatened?"

Ichigo set his face into his palm.

"Kid, we're going to go see his sister," Ichigo said, pointing toward Ganju. "And then talk about getting you home."

*****

Back in the living world, and two days later, in Water Country, one Miyako Kurosaki was stretching out some of the kinks as she eyed the top of the fence post next to her, eager to try out walking on it, whether or not Master called her ready for it or not.

Aunt Yuzu had likewise told her in no uncertain terms that she was not to be walking on fence tops, for decency's sake if nothing else. Of course, that was why Miyako had started wearing pants.

Training was much of what she lived for.

After all, if she was strong, then, when she died, she'd be a soul-reaper for sure. And that would mean that she was sure to see her parents again, rather than be lost and alone forever in Rukongai.

Miyako was still walking, half-skipping in an effort to get more efficiency out of her step, when the black-robed figure jumped down on the road next to her. Looking around she saw the familiar red-haired and tattooed face of one of her parent's friends. She didn't see anyone around to watch her talking to nothing, so she waved at him.

"Good morning, Ren-chan," she said, orange and black streaked hair half covering one eye.

Renji sighed in exasperation.

"Can you not call me that, kid?" he asked.

"Oh," the girl said with an innocent face that nevertheless cared the evil bite of Rukia's sense of humor, ",but then when people see me talking to you they'd be like 'why is that girl talking to someone with a full name and personality, she must be crazy, let's stone her!' Instead of saying 'oh, how cute, she has an imaginary friend, aren't they adorable at that age?' Okay? Ren-chan?"

"Right," the soul-reaper said, shaking his head in exasperation. "I have some letters for you from your parents, but first I need to see Orihime."

"Orihime and Tatsuki are out of town," Miyako said. "People got sick in another country and needed a healer and Tatsuki went to protect her. Aunt Yuzu said they might not be back for a long time. Anybody else?"

Renji was about to answer.

"Ren-chan?"

He twitched as he walked.

Rukia would kill me if I did anything to Miyako. Then Ichigo would kill me. And Rukia would kill what was left.

"Chad?" he asked.

"Bandit-hunting," Miyako said. "Three years on contract. Ren-chan."

"Ishida?!" Renji asked.

"Something about Rogue Reapers?" Miyako said. "Ren-chan."

"Oh, forgot about that," Renji said. "Is everybody with high spiritual pressure out of the city? Urahara!"

"Moved shop when people started noticing him," Miyako answered. "You don't keep up with what goes on here anymore, do you? Ren-chan."

"It's been a few months, who expects things to change so much in a few months?" he asked.

"So, what you're saying is that you're the only one around that knows about soul-reapers except your aunts," Renji said.

"Aunt," Miyako said. "Aunt Yuzu is still in the dark. Ren-chan."

"We have a message we need to deliver," Renji said. "I don't think either of you could make the trip."

"Well, we know people, Ren-chan," Miyako said. "Aunt Karin could have the message delivered."

"That'll have to do," Renji said, thinking of the human boy stuck in the soul society. "This can't wait for us to track down someone we don't have an immediate idea of where they are."

"Okay," Miyako said. "To Aunt Karin then."

****

Authors Note: My hope is time skip six years so that Joseibi (based on a character belonging to person that was in a next-gen Ranma game with me) is at graduating shinobi age and Ryoko is the age she was when I played her for four to five years.

At the moment, there's little enough communication between Konoha and the Kurosakis to explain how an exchange would be hard to arrange for six-plus years. Though, I'm assuming Jiraiya gave them at least the name of the Hidden Village.

Eventually, they'd try a soul-reaper in gigai, though, probably in a few weeks, but there's still the issue of actually making the trip.


	2. Finding Shelter

Separation is an inevitable and trying time between parent and child for the most part. Quite often it is made in a succession of gradual and lesser separations. First came separate rooms, followed by leaving the child in the care of others for a temporary time, and so on. In the beginning, the separation was most characteristically difficult for the young, but as time grew on, the parents would see those final separations, as their child moved off into the world on their own feet, and they would fret.

However, complete and total separation occurred, for the most part, only once between each parent and child. It was a separation so great that, for most people, it was impossible to ever connect again.

Most would consider death to be the identity of that last separation, and in many cases, they would be correct, but it was not always so. Sometimes the separation was one of emotions and spirit. Two people who, despite blood relation, can find no connection with each other and step apart. Or it could be simply refusal to accept responsibility, or authority, and one runs away from the other.

And what was the worst separation?

Perhaps the sudden occurrence of a separation that, however briefly or inaccurately, you knew to be final.

Perhaps the denied realization that one had little to no intrinsic value to their parent or child and had been abandonment.

Perhaps….perhaps there was no "worst".

Perhaps, bad was simply…

…bad.

*****

Naruto sat, a bundle of frustration such as he hadn't been since he'd been kept from bringing Sasuke back to Konoha all those years ago.

Hinata sat with him on the bench and could hardly be considered as stable as a rock herself.

They hugged tight to each other, Kuren between, her eyes dry from crying and wanting to know where her brother was.

Naruto had already told Hinata what he'd seen through the clone, and she believed what he'd told her. There was some part of her that held a fear that her husband had imagined the whole scenario, but he didn't have the sort of crazed attitude she would have expected of that.

So, she believed what he'd told her.

It didn't change matters much. Their son was in the after-life and whatever plans they could have made to make a quick change to that had been interrupted when someone had disrupted Naruto's clone on the other side.

The other side.

The Other Side.

Her son was on The Other Side.

That thought gave her chills, even with the knowledge, belief, that the…people?...over there intended to send him back.

She did know it was possible.

If it wasn't possible to cross over then the resurrection jutsu Orochimaru had used so long ago would not have worked.

Still, she would have liked to have met someone that had made that journey.

The Hokage's door opened, a chunin sticking his head out and nodding grimly for them to enter.

Hinata and Naruto shared a brief look, they'd earily decided not to specify where their son was, saying that their living son was trapped in the afterlife was likely to get them looked at as suffering from shock.

Gently they moved Kuren off their lap and walked into the Hokage's office to see the two young girls, the former-fox turned out to be about Kuren's age, sitting to the side of the Hokage's desk as Tsunade was turned to speak to Sakura. They didn't hesitate to turn and face the Uzumaki's at all, however, even interrupting the commentary.

"Well," Naruto asked, hard-earned manners after years of practice partially forgotten in light of the situation.

"The girl is very forthcoming," Tsunade said, eyeing Ryoko. "And discrete."

Hinata noticed the black-haired girl swallow and thought she saw those eyes flash orange again even as she continued to look down at the ground in front of her. It was also easy to note that she was sitting seiza, and not showing any discomfort from the position.

The blonde-haired girl showed comparatively poorer posture, though she made a quietly exasperated attempt to correct the posture when her elder sister made a small gesture with her fingers.

"We have their address," Tsunade said, pointing back out the door. "And a mission is being dispatched already."

Everybody looked and saw one of the door chunin heading downstairs with a scroll in his hand at a polite but quick pace that was likely to get faster soon.

"I heard you had a memory return to you from that clone that vanished with your son," Tsunade noted leaning forward with a hopeful look to her eyes. "I hope that is so, for your son's sake."

Naruto nodded.

"Jiraiya is…somewhere else," Naruto said. "My clone was talking to one of the residents, he looked like a samurai of some kind, when something disrupted it. I only got so much information that the samurai had family somewhere nearby. He was talking about arranging a drop off when the memory ends. The only name for the country I got was Rukongai."

"Jiraiya knows how to contact us, and 'Hidden' isn't exactly the most descriptive word for a shinobi village of our importance," Tsunade noted dryly. "We can expect to hear word from them as soon as can be, then. And I assume you'll be looking for that name in the archives. Just in case they're not as forthcoming as your first encounter implied."

"We will be," Hinata promised.

It was odd, to have the parents questioned so, but Naruto expected that Tsunade was just worried about the boy and keeping her authority as much as she could while asking what was being done. Granted, there was a time when Naruto would have responded harshly to such questioning.

"Good," Tsunade said. "I suppose that just leaves the problem of these two girls."

Ryoko's hand quietly and slowly started to rise, at first nobody noticed it, not even Hinata, but Sakura had turned to look at the girls as Tsunade mentioned them.

"Yes?" Sakura asked, bringing everyone to look first at her and then the girls.

"Ano…" the girl said cautiously.

Hinata recognized the word from earlier, when the girl had to think about how to proceed with the fox in her hands.

"What do you want to say, girl?" Tsunade asked sharply.

"I..if it was a sealing scroll…" Ryoko said quietly. "Th..the moving…w..was a s..s..side effect. Th…there's no reason to seal an instantaneous event s…so small."

Tsunade looked at the girl and blinked, surprised at the comment.

"Sakura," the Hokage said. "I want you to personally see to getting the archivists started on an inventory of what was taken. Have them begin with the sealing scrolls and when they've identified all of those, then bring me the list and they can finish with the rest. "

"I'm right on it, Sensei," Sakura said, quickly moving to head for the archives and light a fire under some feet.

"That was a good catch, girl, thanks," the Hokage told Ryoko with a smile.

A pleased blush passed over Ryoko's face and she smiled widely and honestly.

"Hai…" she paused mid bow and the smile and blush faded into a confused expression. "Ano….what is the proper term?"

"I am the Hokage," Tsunade said with an educator's tone. "I am the Fifth, Godaime, Tsunade Hashirama."

"You should just tell her what you want her to call you," the blonde said with a sarcastic tone, interrupting her elder as the black-haired girl was about to talk.

"Imouto-chan…" Ryoko said.

Joseibi shrugged nonchalantly.

Ryoko bit her lip and turned toward Tsunade.

"I apologize for this rudeness, Hokage Godaime-Sama," Ryoko said, standing so that she could bowing deep and bending almost to her knees."

"That's all right," Tsunade said, arching an eyebrow and patting a hand out. "Hokage-Sama is plenty."

"Hai, Hokage-sama," Ryoko said, bowing deeply again.

"You don't really need to bow so deeply every time either," Tsunade noted calmly, standing up and moving toward the girl. "Try just about half way down…half-way to the waist, there you go."

Ryoko followed the directions, feeling quietly uncomfortable at being instructed to give less respect than was called for. Then the blonde woman patted her on the head in kindly manner and Ryoko was uncertain again how to respond.

"Ano…" she said, biting her lip.

"Don't worry about it," the woman said. "Can you take the little ones out of the room please, make sure to take care of them."

"Hai! Hokage-sama," Ryoko said firmly, bowing not-so deeply this time. "A martial-artist's duty is to protect the weak."

"Weak?" Kuren, Naruto and Hinata asked together.

Ryoko didn't seem to hear the response as she started to move Joseibi off toward the door and, after hesitating and deciding that she'd been instructed to, the other girl as well. Kuren gave Ryoko a cautious look before looking back at her parents.

"The second guard is still there," Hinata noted. "Go ahead and go out with the other girls."

Reluctantly their daughter stepped out of the room.

"Why did you call me weak?" Kuren demanded as she left the room.

"I'm going to have Sakura find them an apa…" Tsunade started to say.

"We'll take them in," Naruto said.

Hinata and Tsunade looked at him, rather surprised.

"Hey, I remember growing up like that," Naruto said. "I'm not going to let some other kids do that."

Hinata smiled up at him appreciatively.

"They're that man's daughters, you realize," Tsunade reminded him.

"Not their fault," Naruto noted.

"Then let's start discussing what's going to be needed," Tsunade noted.

Outside a different scene was going on.

"Ano…" Ryoko said in front of Kuren, biting her lip. "You're younger than me."

"That doesn't mean I'm weak!" Kuren said.

"Ano…" Ryoko said, trying to figure out a way to politely explain what she meant.

"All right," Kuren said. "Let's spar then!"

The chunin turned alert at that and stood up a little more straight while Joseibi groaned and put her face into her palm.

"Sure, that would be very acceptable," Ryoko said, nodding with a small smile.

Kuren looked at her older opponent and took in the weight and size differences, twenty centimeters, less than five kilograms. For a ten-year old, Ryoko Saotome was tiny, and she certainly didn't have the necessary attitude for a real fighter, and she probably hadn't had the sort of teaching she'd had from some of the best ninja on the planet.

Kuren's victory was assured.

Ryoko looked about the hallway up and down and then toward Joseibi with a smile.

"Joseibi, could you," Ryoko started to say, gesturing to the wall.

Before she said anything else, the blonde Saotome was moving to the side of the hall.

"Don't worry," she said. "I'm out of the way."

"You wouldn't mind if I proctor this, do you?" the chunin asked, insistently.

"Yes, please, shinobi-sama," Ryoko said smiling.

"Chunin," the man corrected her.

"Yes, please, shinobi Chunin-sama," Ryoko said.

"No, that's my rank," the guard explained. "I'm a chunin, my name is Heitaku."

"Yes, please…Chunin Heitaku-sama?" Ryoko suggested, a bit confused by the corrections.

"Try just Heitaku," the chunin suggested.

"Heitaku-sama?" Ryoko asked.

Several people gave exasperated sighs.

"Can we get on with this?" Kuren asked.

"Ano…" Ryoko said, some of her subtle enthusiasm eaten away by the confusion. "But I…"

"You're fine," the chunin said shortly before she could ask anything else. "Are you ready?"

"I'm a Saotome," Ryoko said, blinking, as if that explained everything satisfactorily.

Heitaku took in Ryoko's standing there without a recognizable stance and wondered at just how much the girl could know of how to fight.

"Miss Uzumaki," the chunin said, turning to Kuren.

"Ready," the girl snapped.

"Go," the chunin said.

Kuren immediately went for the hand signs and suddenly there were two of her in the hallway. The outsider seemed unsurprised by this as she continued to stand and politely wait.

Then the youngest of the Uzumaki's was flying forward in tandem.

"Here we come!" Kuren shouted in stereo.

The chunin was surprised. His first thought had been that Kuren had somehow learned the Kage Bunshin already. It was either that, or she had somehow learned how to make Bunshin talk.

The Saotome girl smiled as the two little girls came at her. She side-stepped away from one punch and bent her back to avoid the second girl's kick, twirling her long pony-tail as she did so, so that her black hairs spread out around her.

Heitaku's eyes widened fractionally as the girl did that.

"If you're going to waste your time on posing moves," Kuren said. "You're going to lose."

"I do not believe that I am wasting time," Ryoko said.

She dodged one Kuren and stepped past it, putting one Kuren in the way of the other. The second Kuren dodged around the first and leveled a high roundhouse that, with a short leap, would strike just about on target for Ryoko's throat.

The Saotome gently and swiftly lifted a hand up bring the kick up and out past her head, and then rolled to the ground as that Kuren flipped back to keep her balance. Ryoko came up to stand in front of one that immediately started swinging at the black-haired girl.

There were blocks or interceptions as Ryoko dodged the barrage of this Kuren and idly watched the one behind as she tried to maneuver around the other and get a shot in at the occupied martial artist. However, the front Kuren was successfully hedging Ryoko against one of the walls.

Kuren looked frustrated but confident.

Looking on, Heitaku had to conclude that Kuren's confidence was ill-deserved. Then again, she was fighting someone four years her elder, and with tricks of her own. That spray of hair was not just idle posing.

The hair was too light to disrupt the bunshin, and yet it would react or not react the same. That way, Ryoko had determined whether Kuren's clone had substance or not, and, in proving that, which of her images was the clone and which was real.

Since that moment, Kuren's Bunshin had been Ryoko's advantage, and right now the Uzumaki was unknowingly driving herself into a textbook unicorn trap.

Ryoko's back touched the wall and the Kuren clone launched forward with an attack, covering Kuren's own chambered sidekick. Then the black-haired outsider was idly leaping up into the air and rotating through space with her head at the center as Kuren passed in near slow motion beneath her.

With the bunshin in her way, Kuren had no way to know that Ryoko had gone airborne until the shinobi's own kick was well on the way slamming into the stone wall, and Ryoko was directly above her. The sight distracted her and she was off focus as she headed for the wall, kick dangerously off center.

Heitaku straightened, face turned suddenly serious, but he didn't have to act.

A brief frown covered Ryoko's face and she jabbed out with a hand at Kuren's forehead as they came within upside down inches of each other. The result of the jab was that Kuren twisted about as she was taken off course to make the kick slide harmlessly off of the wall. Her clone, of course, vanished as she passed through it and hit the wall.

The impact was hard, but undamaging and the ninja rolled right off of it.

Ryoko was already landed and standing politely, with no stance and smiling.

"That was very fun," Ryoko said, bowing.

"What," Kuren protested. "We're not done here."

"I think it's a good idea to stop there," Heitaku said. "I think I hear your parents getting finished up."

"Well…fine," Kuren said, almost pouting.

Heitaku breathed a sigh of relief. The girl had been heading for a broken leg at the end there. The unicorn trap had turned to be a bit too real. If the outsider girl hadn't added that extraneous jab at the end, they'd be taking the Uzumaki child to the hospital.

The older girl was currently walking over to her sister and quietly talking to her. Mostly out of curiosity, the chunin watched the motion of the girl's lips and was impressed to find that she was breaking down the short match in the manner of a sensei to a student.

However, her audience was less than appreciative.

"Uh huh," Joseibi said. "Yeah. Hn. Right. Right."

It was too bad the girl was too old to be introduced to the ninja academy. She'd have been an excellent shinobi.

The doors opened not long after, and Kuren turned toward her parents hopefully.

"Well?" the girl asked dancing toward them.

"We have to wait for them to send word," Naruto said in a dissatisfied manner.

"In the meantime," Hinata said. "We're going to research this Rukongai place and find out…where it is."

"Now, Kuren," Naruto said, he turned toward the Saotomes gesturing for them to follow. "You two. Let's go."

"Are they coming home with us?" Kuren demanded, shocked.

"Until we can find their family," Hinata said in a soothing, gentle tone of voice that insisted on no argument.

"Hai," Ryoko said, standing up and bowing. She was biting her lip a bit, but seemed much less nervous after her spar. "Joseibi."

"Hai, hai," the younger said standing up and grabbing her pack. "I'm ready."

" are ready, Uzumaki-sama," Ryoko said with a nervous smile as she pulled her own pack onto her back.

"We can take those packs," Naruto said, reaching down to take Ryoko's from her while the chunin moved to speak to Hinata about the sparring.

He was moderately surprised to find the girl didn't let go, but the weight of the pack was even more surprising. It had to be about twice the weight of the girl and she was lifting it only as if it were a normal pack.

"Ano…" Ryoko said. "But…my training…"

"Here, you can have mine," Joseibi said, handing her pack to the blonde man and stretching out.

Naruto took the younger Saotome's pack in his free hand and found it much more what he was expecting from the elder's pack. The black-haired girl was currently looking to her younger sister with a disappointed look that nevertheless gave permission.

"This pack is part of your training?" Naruto asked.

"E… is training, Uzumaki-sama," Ryoko said as if it was obvious.

The jonin looked down at her curiously, reminded somewhat of a pair of kids he'd known as a child. One of whom currently shared his life and name.

"All right," Naruto agreed, letting go of Ryoko's pack and bringing Joseibi's up to his shoulder. "Anyway, let's go."

******

Jiraiya thought back to that Kukaku woman and twitched in sympathy for Ganju, even though the man had thoroughly screwed up the effort to get him back home. That thought brought him back to where he was, sitting in the living room of the Kurosaki's home.

Ichigo was nearby, watching him silently and drinking some sort of juice from a wooden cup. Jiraiya had had to resist the urge to ask questions about…well, everything. Ichigo had a sort of forbidding nature that reminded him of his uncle Neji in some ways.

A short, black-haired woman who didn't appear much older than eighteen walked in the front door and the young ninja waved at the woman of the house, feeling a bit out of place.

"Renji is back," Rukia said. "It sounds as if most of the crew are out on their own tasks already. He's talked to Miyako and Karin however."

Ichigo grunted and nodded in response.

"They'll send someone with a message," the man said. "Which only leaves one issue."

The two adults turned toward Jiraiya.

"Hmm, I can see where the normal household games will be difficult with a guest around," Rukia noted.

Behind her, Ichigo coughed and momentarily choked on his juice, rather breaking the intimidating dignity that he'd held to that point.

"I wasn't talking about that!" Ichigo noted.

"But don't you want Miyako-chan to have a little shinigami brother or sister to meet when she gets here?" Rukia asked with glittering eyes.

Ichigo was looking down at her, eyebrows twitching as he tried to decide if his wife was joking, serious or both.

"Anyway, enough of the bedroom talk, you really have a one-track mind sometimes Ichigo," Rukia said then, ignoring as her husband smacked his face into the palm of his hand.

The black-haired woman shifted easily into a serious frame of expression.

"We have to see about getting him strong enough to make the trip," she

commented.

"That's what I wa…never mind, never mind," Ichigo said, shaking his head. "You're a ninja, right kid?"

"Yeah," Jiraiya said.

"Yoruichi?" Rukia asked.

"She's more twisted than you," Ichigo noted, ignoring the sudden twitch of his wife's eyebrow. "Besides, she's in the mortal world and we're not likely to find her."

"That leaves only…"

******

"No," Soifon said.

The woman looked past them towards the entrance to her office, the Captain of the Stealth Force noted Jiraiya sitting there and waiting.

"You're the most qualified shinigami to teach a young ninja the skills he'll need to make the trip back to the mortal world," Ichigo noted.

"No," Soifon repeated, mouth twitching.

"We can't have a human staying around here too long," Rukia noted.

"No," the woman repeated.

"That's your final word on the matter?" Ichigo asked.

"I'll not teach my secret skills to someone who will take them to the human world where everyone will hear about it," Soifon said firmly.

Ichigo and Rukia looked at each other, nodded in synchronization and then turned back to Soifon.

"If you really feel that way about it," Ichigo said.

"I do," Soifon said.

"Oh well," Rukia said. "I'm sure there are other ways to impress Yoruichi."

"I'm glad you are not ma…pardon?" Soifon interrupted herself.

"Well, I was just thinking," Rukia noted. "Yoruichi spends most of her time in the human world, doesn't she, Ichigo?"

"Yeah, she's usually wandering about the place somewhere," Ichigo agreed.

"So, if one of your students were to carry what he learned from you to the living world," Rukia said idly as the vague, starry look started to enter Soifon's eyes. "Then she's bound to hear of it and know what a great teacher you've become."

"I'll make him the greatest ninja the world has ever known," Soifon said in a trance-like state as she imagined the runaway shinigami's appreciation for her teaching brilliance.

Ichigo and Rukia sweated a bit at just how easy that had proven to be.

"Let me see this boy," Soifon said, snapping out of her fantasy-driven daze.

Ichigo looked back over his shoulder and waved for Jiraiya to come forward, noting as he did so, the stuffed-cat money-purse they'd acquired before coming to Soifon's office. As the young, purple-haired boy walked forward, the smitten-shinigami's eyes immediately locked on to the item in question.

A worry passed through Rukia's mind for a moment, that they were laying it on a bit thick, but it was a bit late to back off now.

"You're Jiraiya Uzumaki," Soifon asked, eyes flicking from the cat-wallet to the boy's face.

"Yeah, that's me," the boy said, nodding. "You're the one that's supposed to teach me, right?"

"Supposed to…" Soifon repeated, looking toward Rukia and Ichigo with narrowed eyes. "I will be teaching you, yes. And if you follow my teachings, you will be greater than any other shinobi alive in your time."

There was a certain level of insistence to that statement, but certainly seemed the right chord to strike with the young Uzumaki.

"Really?" Jiraiya asked.

"I just need one thing from you," Soifon said. Then she rethought that statement. "Two things, actually."

"And what're those," Jiraiya asked.

"You're complete and total obedience to my commands," Soifon said. "And you must say that you were taught by me. Especially if the person asking is a black cat or beautiful, dark-skinned woman."

"Umm, okay," Jiraiya said with a bit of confusion.

"Oh, there's one more thing," Soifon said then.

"What?" the young shinobi asked.

"I'll need a….training fee," the woman said.

"A training fee, like what?" Jiraiya asked.

Eyes wandered to the cat-purse in easy view on Jiraiya's belt.

"That'll do," Soifon said.

"Umm, sure," Jiraiya said, slowly unhooking the purse and holding it up slowly.

Soifon snatched the purse and immediately started holding it to her face.

"Ahhh! Yoruichi-sama, your fur is so soft," the Captain said in a girlish voice completely unlike the one she'd been using so far. Then she noticed the Kurosakis, her new student, and all the staff in her office staring at her, and pulled the purse behind her back. "Yes, well, perhaps it is time to see where you stand."

"All right, sensei!" Jiraiya called out.

Before he was even finished speaking, the ninja was aware of his soon-to-be sensei having vanished from her original position and immediately leaped up from the floor. Twisting about, he looked down to see the strange woman below, short sword in the place where he had been standing.

Ichigo and Rukia kept their faces impassive, but a glance toward each other told the other that both were wondering if this had really been a good idea.

"Did you perceive that flash step or did you anticipate where I would arrive?" Soifon asked casually as Jiraiya hit the ceiling, releasing a hand-seal so that he could hold himself there. "Either way, I'm surprised you managed that feat. Very impressive for a human."

Jiraiya was about to smile at the compliment, but then the blade of Soifon's sword was slashed into the ceiling a fraction of an inch from his neck. It was then that he'd realized that his sensei had moved again and was, in fact, holding him to the ceiling.

"You have potential," Soifon agreed. "For any human to be able to respond to that speed. But especially at such an age. And don't be concerned about this defeat, the mastery flash step is beyond anything a…"

Jiraiya's form burst into smoke revealing a chair which Soifon quickly dropped to the floor.

As the Stealth Force captain dropped, and Ichigo and Rukia both looked about, a kunai whistled through the air. Soifon blocked it almost casually, as she turned to see the ten-year old human.

"Did he perceive that flash step?" Soifon asked herself, and then recalled the hand-sign the boy had made on the way up to the ceiling. "No, he anticipated I would up the ante. Excellent foresight."

Jiraiya and the Kurosakis watched the small smile spread slowly across Soifon's face and noted the manic gleam in her eye as she held her head up.

"You will make an excellent student," she said.

"You don't think its too late to speak to Zaraki, do you," Ichigo whispered to Rukia.

******

"Excuse me, Ranma-Sensei," Miyako said, looking down at her feet. "These don't look like the normal kind of training weights."

Chained around her right ankle was a manacle with a chain leading to a small iron ball. It was hardly a full-sized ball and chain, but for the ten year old it might as well have been.

"That's the point," the man standing over her said. "Normal training weights let you build strength and endurance, which equally help you build your chi and your agility. However, that's not what this is for."

"What is this for?" Miyako asked, lifting up her manacled legs.

"You're not always gonna get even weight when your doing stuff," he said. "Imagine you gotta grab some guy and then you got your weight and balance all over the place. Or if you hurt a leg an' you can only use one. Or, heck, if someone decides to chain a little black pig to you at a competition."

"Like that will ever happen," Miyako said, rolling her eyes.

Still, she had to admit that the other scenarios sounded plausible.

"Anyway," Ranma said, resisting the urge to correct the girl on matters. "You're gonna have to deal with off-balance situations eventually."

"Hai," Miyako said. "Umm, is Akane-Sensei ready to start teaching again."

"A few more days," Ranma said. "And she'll back and your sword lessons start again. How're you doing?"

"Well, Aunt Karin is looking for some to deliver a message for my parents," Miyako said.

"Right," Ranma said, not bringing up the fact that Miyako's parents were dead. He'd seen enough demons and such in his life to believe the girl's claims of getting letters from her dead family. "Where does this message need to go?"

"Some place called Konohagakure," she said.

"Konoha?" Ranma repeated. "That's a shinobi village in Hi no Kuni, that's a pretty long trip."

"Well, we're not going," Miyako noted as thoughts continued in her head. "Just keep him talking and you can delay the jump training."

"Oh, that reminds me," Ranma noted. "We'll be having some new students soon."

"Really?" Miyako asked. "What's the big deal about that?"

"Well, they're children of old friends of mine," Ranma noted. "One's actually my niece. Noriko"

"Wait, I thought old man Kuno wouldn't let his daughter come here," Miyako said, confused.

The argument, or rant rather, had been fairly common at the dojo. Every so often, the kendoist would show up and rail about Saotome "corrupting" the youth of Mizu no Kuni and refusing to allow his blood to be so tainted. Usually, Akane-Sensei, Ranma-Sensei and their students just ignored the sound.

Ranma-sensei had even told Miyako to consider it training for dealing with loud mouthed morons.

"Apparently, Nabiki convinced him otherwise," Ranma noted. "The other is Loshun of the Joketsuzoku. Her parents are sending her here so that she can experience the outside world as they did."

"Okay, then," Miyako said.

"Now," Ranma said. "On to training."

"Hai," Miyako said in an already weary tone.

The orange and black haired girl gathered herself up to leap, remembering to compensate for the moving weight on her right leg. A moment later she was rising into the air, and the weight on her left leg flying wildly so as to bring her hurtling through the dojo to land in an ungraceful lump among the maps.

"You need to remember," Ranma noted. "That if you try to buy time, you're also giving the opponent time. So keep an eye on what he's doing at all times."

"You were standing right in front of me?!" Miyako protested. "When…how did you get the second weight on my feet?"

"We have not yet reached that point in your training student," Ranma noted. "Now, I believe it was time to start the training in earnest. Are you ready?"

Miyako watched the smirk on Ranma's face as he settled into a stance, and quickly tried to stand up and get in her own ready mode.

******

Yuzu heard the sound of her niece coming into the clinic-house and smiled. The girl was spending more and more time at that dojo, but she was still very good about coming to the clinic and helping out at agreed upon times.

"Welcome home, Miyako," Yuzu called out. "How was your…oh dear! What happened to you?"

Miyako was covered in small bruises and cuts, not from Ranma-sensei, but from where she had failed to compensate for the motion of the balls and chains again. The best training situations often left her a bit scratched up.

"Just training," Miyako said, trying to ignore Yuzu's worried face. "I missed my jumps a couple of times."

"Just a couple!?" Yuzu said, a bit frantic. "How does that man train you kids?"

"Ranma-sensei is very careful," Miyako protested. "Hey, have you seen Aunt Karin?"

"Aunt Karin is still looking for a person to deliver your letter," Aunt Yuzu said in the manner of humoring a child.

Miyako sighed. Aunt Yuzu still thought she wrote the letters from her parents herself. Aunt Karin played along to keep the secret mostly.

"It is a long trip, and there are dangers," Aunt Yuzu reminded the girl.

"I'm going to take it myself, Aunt Yuzu," Miyako said. "I have to keep training still."

"Yes, of course, dear," Yuzu said, worriedly. She was beginning to consider taking the girl to one of those counselors and therapists. This obsession with being strong so she could find her parents on the other side. It couldn't be healthy.


	3. Growing Roots

Miyako felt her form falling apart as the sequence of blows continued, her eyes flicking to each place the practice blade appeared in the instant after she heard the clattering of its impact. The blade wasn't moving faster than she could see, but she'd lost her rhythm at some point and each clack left her focus further and further behind so that she was no longer even reacting, she was being pushed.

And then, the practice blade was struck from nerveless fingers as it clattered to the ground and her sensei's blade tapped her once on each shoulder and then rested at her throat.

"You're captured and crippled," the woman behind the blade said.

"Hai, Akane-Sensei," Miyako said, sweating and breathing hard.

"Do you know where you made your mistake?" Akane asked as she settled back.

"I..I'm not sure, Akane-Sensei," she said. "Normally if I make a mistake you shut me down right away, but…this felt like I'd lost control a long time before I lost."

"That's right," Akane said. "Let's start again, you remember the first few exchanges?"

"Hai, Sensei," Miyako said.

"Then we'll walk through them," Akane said.

The woman returned to her starting mark and waited for the ten year old child to do likewise. From there they started, in slow motion, the same fight that Miyako had just lost so completely. They moved in a step-by-step retread of the previous match, up until Miyako struck out with her sword and, instead of allowing her to move on, Akane stopped her cold.

"Here," Akane said. "You stepped too far forward, that put you slightly off balance. From there I just kept you overstepping."

"So…why didn't you just stop me there?" Miyako asked.

"I can do that," Akane noted. "The more advanced students, certainly, but someone who's just slightly better than you, or just slightly worse? That small of a mistake won't help them immediately. However, if they catch and use it correctly…well you saw."

"So…" Miyako asked. "How do I stop it?"

"Learn to recognize when its happening," Akane said. "And break the rhythm. If you have to, break contact and start over."

"Okay, sensei," Miyako said, sighing.

She looked up and noticed Akane Saotome's eyes drifting toward the entrance and a look of mixed emotions on her face. Though, for the most part, she seemed happy.

Following the look, Miyako looked to see the familiar form of Tatewaki Kuno walking in to the dojo. She rolled her eyes and waited for the man to start ranting, wondering why he hadn't already. Then she noticed he wasn't alone.

Kuno's wife, Akane-sensei's sister, was walking in with a brown-haired girl just about the same age as Miyako was. That had to be the Saotome's niece.

"Excuse me, Miyako," Akane said. "Practice the first three katas for a little bit."

"Hai, sensei," Miyako said as the woman walked over to greet her elder sister.

Ranma Saotome came in from the house soon after as another trio started to come into the dojo. The woman had long purple hair and was dressed in a more elaborate version of the robes worn by the few Musabetsu Kakuto Tadashita-Ryu Disciples she had seen.

The man at her side was tall and wearing thick glasses. His robes were much more flowing than the woman's, and Miyako wondered why any sort of fighter would wear something like that. His hair was about as long as the woman's and jet black.

With them was a girl with blue hair bound up in little buns. She was also about Miyako's age. The two girls started wandering through the dojo, noting the other students, but eventually they gravitated toward each other and the Kurosaki girl.

Both girls were trained, but there were definite differences.

The brown-haired girl moved like a dancer or gymnast, light, almost like walking on air. She seemed to be familiar with fighting motions as she looked about the dojo, but it wasn't second nature.

The blue-haired girl was a warrior through and through, graceful but without the whimsy of the second girl's steps. She noted Miyako's uniform easily enough, eyeing the originally white gi and the black belt and comparing that to the belts and uniforms of other students.

Miyako's gi was old, worn and tatty, showing all the hits it had taken, all the times she had rolled away from a fall or punch. It would have been more so, but she had grown out of her first three. The belt was the first she had been given, back when she started at the dojo three years ago. She remembered asking for an adult size belt and had to wrap it around herself three times. At the moment it was only wrapped around herself twice.

Despite the tattered state of her uniform, she herself showed excellent grooming and personal hygiene. Minus, of course, the fact that she was sweating a little from the exercise.

"Wow," the brown-haired girl said with a shrill, dry voice and a smirk. "You are quite the ragamuffin, aren't you. I think I smelt you upon first entering the dojo."

Miyako set her practice sword down and leaned against it, smirking at the other girl.

"I figure my uniform should be at least as strong as me," she said.

"So you can bowl over opponents when you bow?" the brown-haired girl asked, a bit confused at the unusual response.

The blue-haired girl looked to the other's clothing, a lovely kimono that was, nevertheless, entirely impractical for fighting in, and arched an eyebrow.

"Is better than tripping over own dress," she noted, pointing at the clothing in question.

"It is inhibiting, isn't it," the girl said. "Father does insist I wear whenever outside the house. Usually mother and I ignore him, but it is hard to do so under his eye. I do appreciate the beauty, but would prefer to leave it to more social occasions."

"Your sensei's niece, Noriko, aren't you?" Miyako asked. "When do you sta…"

The girl shushed her swiftly, darting a hand forward to cover Miyako's mouth.

"I'm here to offer my services in aiding my poorer aunt and uncle with taking care of their new baby," she called a bit too loudly.

The other two girls looked around the brown-haired child and saw Nabiki Kuno covering her face with her hand as Tatewaki started extolling his daughter's magnanimous nature in dealing with such a fiend as Saotome.

"Father no appr…" and the blue-haired girl found a hand over her mouth just like Miyako had.

The two girls with their mouths covered eyed each other for a moment and then reached up to grab the Kuno girl's hand off their mouths.

Further on, the adults started moving off into the living house so that everyone could meet Ryouta Saotome, leaving the girls to themselves. If someone were close enough, they might have heard Akane whispering to Nabiki "your talent skipped a generation" and the response "as long as the insanity does."

Given that Nabiki had married the insanity, however, it probably couldn't have been as bad as she implied.

"You watch whose mouth you cover," the Joketsuzoku snapped.

"I do apologize," the girl said. "My father is rather…"

"Cuckoo?" Miyako asked.

"That seem right," the blue-haired girl said in agreement. "Is same with crazy aunt who marry Musk Prince."

"Excuse me, Loshun," Noriko said irritably. "You should not speak so about my family."

"Is Loshun or rag-girl wrong?" Loshun asked.

"Is not the point," Noriko sighed and rolled her eyes. "IT is not the point. You and this raga…Hang on, what is your name?"

"Me?" the girl asked. "I'm Miyako Kurosaki."

"Ah," Noriko said. "Don't your mother and her sister run a clinic not far from here?"

"Those are my aunts," Miyako said.

"Then what do your parents do?" Noriko asked.

"They don't live here," Miyako said shrugging. "There are some…rules keeping us apart for a bit."

"Is too bad," Loshun said.

"I still hear from them," Miyako said as she returned to her practicing.

****

Jiraiya leaned against his knees and took a deep breath. Soifon was truly a master beyond anything he could have imagined. Then again, from what he was gathering from her lectures, the woman was hundreds of years old.

For the moment, his training was paused as Soifon was called upon by her subordinates to address some issues. He could see scrolls and reports being handed over to her and remembered that she was essentially a kage of this other world and had a lot of other things to do than just train him.

Then he noted a look directed toward him from her.

A look of interest.

Jiraiya twitched as he recognized that.

Every time something about him generated interest in her, things got a bit more intense.

"Student," she called out, gesturing quietly for him to come over to her.

Straightening up and started to walk over to the imposing woman as she turned partially to the side and facing the man that had brought her the information.

"Division 12 does not learn of this," she said in a whisper that Jiraiya only caught through reading her lips. Then she turned back to face him. "You've been holding out on me, student."

"Umm, what're you talking, Soifon-sama?" Jiraiya asked.

"Your mother," Soifon began taking a scroll from the leaving subordinate, "is a member of the Hyuuga clan."

"So?" Jiraiya asked, feeling a bit uncomfortable at the attention.

"Do you know how to use the byakugan?" she asked casually.

"Not…really," Jiraiya said.

"We shall have to remedy that," Soifon noted.

"But, I'm only half Hyuuga," he protested.

"And your other half is the living seal of a major demon," Soifon noted. "I doubt you'll have a problem from your heritage."

A Hyuuga.

A living Hyuuga.

The Kurosakis had no idea what they found.

What they had dropped at her feet.

Byakugan was a function of a living human body, it had never survived crossing over, even if the Hyuuga became a Shinigami afterwards.

That made for a problem.

Soifon was obligated to make use of this opportunity, but, at the same time, she'd taken the boy as a student and what she'd seen so far had shown her a lot of potential.

"You and I are going to go now and speak to Rukia and Ichigo," Soifon said. "You will speak to no one about the byakugan unless I have deemed it safe."

"What do you mean safe?" Jiraiya asked.

"I mean that unless you want your still living insides displayed under several microscopes," Soifon noted. "That you will pretend you've never heard the name Hyuuga unless I have given you permission."

The ten-year old boy blanched at the warning.

****

"I have determined how long it will take to train the human to be able to safely reach the mortal world," Soifon said, standing before the Captain's Meeting. "I believe he shall be ready in sometime between six and eight years."

There was some muttering at the table as this was announced.

"That is a long time to play host to human," Komamura noted.

"It is unavoidable," the Captain of the Stealth Force noted. "I hope to have him ready before then, but I do believe that that will be the most likely time that he will be prepared."

"Has the message been sent to the boy's family?" Retsu Unohana asked casually.

"Unfortunately," Byakuya noted. "My lieutenant reports that most of our human contacts are involved in their own affairs, our affairs or else unreachable."

"We can easily arrange for a messenger in a gigai to make an appearance and inform the humans of our end of the situation," Soifon suggested. "Only the boy's immediate family need know exactly where we are from."

There was some sentiment, lingering or otherwise, that the plight of one stranded human boy was not important to the Seireitei, but, given the interactions they had had with the human world over the past twenty years, it was generally felt to be a good idea to treat unusual circumstances cautiously.

In the past, "cautiously" meant elimination of the potential danger. That was no longer considered a wise policy. Several of their more recent problems had developed out of the policy, actually. In addition, the Seireitei now had actual human allies that would not really appreciate the return of that policy.

"Agreed," the Captain-General noted. "Ichigo Kurosaki was the one to speak to this boy's father the first time, and Konoha is far enough away from Karakura that no disruption will occur from anyone seeing him. We shall send Rukia and Ichigo to apprise the humans of the situation."

Soifon showed no expression, she had hoped they would suggest her, but the Kurosaki's could be trusted with the task she wanted completed.

****

Hinata laid out her collection of kunais, shurikens and other tools, trying to keep busy. For the last few days, neither Naruto nor her had been assigned a mission, left to instead watch the two Saotome girls as they had volunteered.

However, this left her and Naruto both with the fact of their son's absence and nothing to do about it. The result being that they were being exceedingly cautious about their daughter and, to a mildly lesser degree, the two girls now in their charge.

Looking up, she could see Naruto training their daughter in the back space of land. Usually, that training would have had the flavor of play as Naruto and Kuren played tag with Jiraiya and incorporated their ninja talents into the game. Kuren's eyes would have been dancing with glee just as Jiraiya would have been filling frustrated.

Now, however, Kuren's brow was furrowed in a way that was half Uzumaki and half Hyuuga. The combined nature of determination and stubbornness both her parents had displayed several times in youth was starting to show on her face.

The idea of games seemed no longer to appeal to her.

Her brother was gone and she wanted him back. Unlike her parents, Kuren didn't yet have the experience or development to think far ahead or to realize that she couldn't do anything about it. Like her parents, she had latched onto one concept: the idea that if she were stronger and more knowledgeable that she could find someway to get her brother back.

Hopefully, the six-year old would settle down some, especially if and when these people on the other side sent their word over what was happening with Jiraiya, something Hinata would not let herself even begin to doubt would happen. Though Hinata was aware that events so young could have a long-term impact on a person's personality.

Naruto's eyes were watching Kuren closely, not just to examine her form, and occasionally glancing toward another blonde girl sitting at the patio and idly swinging her feet. Within the house itself, the elder Saotome was hmming pleasantly to herself as she wandered about sweeping and dusting and generally cleaning the house like some sort of maid.

Hinata and Naruto had both already noted that even the girl's chores became training. She walked from stance to stance and moved whatever tool she was using with the most efficient of motions. Fighting skill was obviously one of the most important things in her life.

They'd had the word from Heitaku about Ryoko and Kuren's spar. There hadn't been enough for a full gauge of the girl's skills, but he'd said that she was easily past the level required by an academy graduate.

This morning, when Hinata first awoke, the former Hyuuga had found the girl running a complex kata in the space that Naruto was currently working with their daughter in. Every so often the girl had flipped high into the air, slicing attacks as she did so. It was the third time that this happened that Hinata realized these high jumps were part of the girl's kata.

Her taijutsu prowess was obvious.

Yet, in many other ways, the girl's personality was familiar.

Ryoko was terribly shy, rarely speaking on her own behalf unless prodded to do so. And, even if prodded, she stated her desires for anything, even so simple as what dish she would like to eat, in the most hesitant of tones.

It was very similar to how Hinata herself behaved as a child, but that at least had some explanation. She had been perceived as a poor taijutsuka and a failure to the Hyuuga clan. The fact that she was discarded as a child was hurtful and wrecked her self-image so thoroughly until that first chunin exam when people began to acknowledge her, starting with her team and sensei, and then Naruto and then her family after that.

She still blushed to remember Naruto cheering her on back then.

Still, the girl in front of her was so obviously exceptional that it was hard to imagine anyone treating her as something unnecessary.

The younger sister was much more like she expected from a child of that age. A lot more like Kuren had been until the last few days. Though there were troubling signs there as well.

Joseibi did not seem surprised by how she and her sister had been abandoned. She had taken the news that their father had left them behind with a shrug and something that sounded suspiciously like a sigh of relief while her elder sister looked troubled and continued to insist that this was some manner of test.

The blonde did not have a very firm interest in taijutsu, but had trained at her sister's insistence more than once over the last few days. Hinata had seen enough to know that Joseibi's martial skill was right about on par with most shinobi children her age.

Mostly, Joseibi seemed to lay about and relax, similar to a certain Nara whom Hinata had known once upon a time. Only training seemed to have replaced girls as the most often complained about thing.

The girl loved teasing her elder sister, but this was matched by the fact that, for the most part, she followed Ryoko's instructions and requests. The nature of the interactions implied to Hinata that the ten-year old was most responsible for taking care of the younger girl. Given that they had both mentioned a mother and a father, this was surprising.

Hinata frowned as she continued the various puzzles and picked up a sharpening stone as she set aside the questions for the moment and started working on maintaining her weapons.

As the sound of scraping steel first dashed through the room, Ryoko froze in place in the room ahead of Hinata's chosen workspace. She started to move again and it came a second time, causing Ryoko to wince as her eyes flashed orange for a moment. The orange was just about to fade when the third strike of the sharpening stone came to her ears.

Outside, Joseibi started to get bored with watching the training Kuren and Naruto were engaged in. The younger Saotome stood up and, arms behind her head, she walked to the door, drawing a look from Naruto as she did so. The door opened at her hand and the sound of someone sharpening a blade reached the ears of those outside.

To Naruto and Kuren, it was nothing too surprising, Hinata was easily visible through the house's windows. Joseibi paused in the doorway and shivered at the sound however, eyes immediately tracking to her sister, where the black haired girl stood there with a broom in hand.

Ryoko's eyes were closed tight and, as much as she was trying not to, her shoulders were shivering. An orange light was leaking out of the lashes of the girl's eyes and every time Uzumaki-san struck the stone along one of her kunai's or daggers, the fading light grew stronger and appeared in more places.

The broom in the girl's hands was starting to smoulder.

With the sixth strike, the orange fire didn't dissipate to wait for the next strike. Joseibi could actually see tiny orange flames licking out from Ryoko's body and catching upon the broom.

Forgetting her earlier intention to find a bed or couch or something to waste the rest of her day, Joseibi made a bee line for her temporary guardian's work table, a worried expression clear on her face. The Uzumaki father, outside, couldn't help but notice the action.

"Stop doing that," she said, putting her tiny hands down on the table and trying to fix Hinata with a warning glare.

"Stop doing wh…" Hinata's words were interrupted as she looked up to see the smoke wafting up from around Ryoko.

The door swung open swiftly then, with a serious looking Naruto in the doorway.

"What's going…"

All talking ceased as Ryoko burst into a brief, small flash of fire, pushing the furniture and décor around her away as she fell into a boneless pile amongst the ashes of the broom she had been holding and the remains of her kimono.

Both Uzumakis were already moving as the girl was falling. Naruto moved to collect the girl out of the small pile of ash that she had fallen in and laid her out as comfortably as possible on the couch four feet away. Hinata meanwhile had rushed to her collection of medicines and come back to see what the harm was done.

Kuren came in, curiously to see what was the matter herself and stood next to the surprised looking Joseibi.

"What happened?" Kuren asked.

"Wow, she's never exploded before," Joseibi noted quietly.

Hinata was relieved to see that the burns on Ryoko were minor compared to what she had feared given the large scorch mark and the displaced sofas and chairs in her living room. The jonin breathed a sigh of relief. She looked up to her husband and back to Joseibi.

"See if she can tell you what that was," Hinata said as Naruto nodded and turned toward the girl.

"Kuren, help your mother," Naruto said. "I need to talk to the kid."

Kuren nodded and moved to Hinata's side as the Uzumaki mother continued to look over Ryoko for any sign of severe injury. Joseibi, grumbled reluctantly as Naruto walked over and gestured insistently to come into the next room with him.

"Can you tell me what just happened, kid?" Naruto demanded.

"My name is Joseibi," the blonde Saotome protested.

"Can you tell me what that was, Joseibi?" Naruto repeated, resisting the urge to rll his eyes.

"Onechan exploded," Joseibi said, shrugging as if it was a common thing.

"What can you say about why?" Naruto asked. Joseibi was silent for a bit, wondering if she should say anything about it. "Well, we can't avoid it if we don't know what causes it."

"She was scared," Joseibi admitted.

"What?" Naruto asked. "She's always scared. What does that have to do with anything?"

"I don't know," Joseibi said. "I just know that if she gets very scared things catch on fire."

"When does it usually happen?" Naruto asked.

"When she's very scared," Joseibi repeated as if talking to a moron. "Like there was the wild dog that jumped at me. Or the time I almost fell off the cliff. Or when mother is picking up that sword."

The girl said "mother" in a less than complimentary tone, she never really referred to either of the Saotome parents very well, actually. Quite the contrast to how Ryoko referred to them in near reverential terms, though with the occasional embarrassed admission about her father.

Naruto frowned, aware he probably wasn't getting much information from the girl.

"Is she going to be okay?" Joseibi asked. "I've never seen her hurt herself before."

Naruto smiled and patted the young Saotome on the head.

"She'll be fine," Naruto said. "One more question. Do you know how long this has been happening?"

"As long as I can remember," Joseibi answered.

"Let's go see how your sister is doing," Naruto said.

When they went to the next room, Ryoko was awake and blushingly letting Hinata bandage her minor injuries after applying salve.

"I d…do apologize," Ryoko was saying. "I d..d..did not m.. to cause an..ny..ny trouble. Uzumaki-s..s..sama."

"That's all right," Hinata said soothingly. "Everything is fine. And please, 'san' is plenty enough."

"Ano…?"

Hinata looked questionably up at Naruto who gave a nod, a dissatisfied nod, but still a nod.

"I need to speak to my husband," Hinata said. "Can you finish off these bandages?"

"Hai, Uzumaki-sama," Ryoko said.

As Hinata stood up, Joseibi came next to her sister and smirked on seeing the girl more or less healthy.

"Wow, and you say I have a fiery temple," Joseibi said.

"Imouto-chan," Ryoko protested, eyes drawn down.

"How did you do that?" Kuren asked, impressed. "Why would you do that?"

Looking back over her shoulder, Hinata and Naruto separated from the three children, though remained in sight of them.

"What did she say?" Hinata asked.

"She said that her sister goes boom when she's very scared," Naruto said. "But the examples she gave…there all really dangerous things. Except something about her mother and a sword."

Hinata frowned before looking toward her ninja tools and the sharpening stone she'd left with them. Then she turned a meaningful glance back to Naruto.

"The sound triggered it?" Naruto asked.

"I think so," Hinata noted. "Then you sort of slammed the door open and boom."  
"Joseibi said very scared," Naruto noted. "Do you think those little things qualify?"

"There's a lot of stress," Hinata noted. "And she seems generally skittish and oversensitive, but I don't think she shows most or even all of what she's feeling. If she calms down, it'll probably be hard to trigger."

"Have you heard of anything like this?" Naruto asked.

"No," Hinata noted. "Maybe it's a blood line, or perhaps she just has poor chakra control. But I've never heard of anything quite like this. I know the first signs though, you've seen her eyes sometimes?"

"That orange flash?" Naruto asked. "Yeah, guess we'll have to watch for that. We should tell Tsunade and Sakura. They might know of something."

Hinata nodded in agreement.

Then the sound of knocking came to their ears.

Naruto frowned as he looked to the front door.

"I'll get it," he said grumbling.

"And I'll get started on the report and clean-up," Hinata said, moving toward the three children.

Naruto listened over his shoulder to the groans of Kuren and Joseibi as they were instructed to help clean up and the protests of Ryoko upon being told to stay lying down and relax.

The thing that stuck in his mind was the younger Saotome's inclusion of their mother picking up a sword with times when she had faced danger and things had "caught fire" around her sister. Naruto had rather dark impressions of the girls' mother to add to what he knew of their father and neither impression was getting better.

As he reached the door, he gave a grumbling "who is it", still in more of a serious and irritable frame of mind than the enthusiasm and cheer he was known for, but that was easily explainable by his son's situation at the moment.

The door swung open and gave one of the two behind a surprised and suspicious look.

There he was, dressed in street clothes and standing next to a tiny black-haired woman in a sundress, that samurai from before.

"Hey, sorry to take so long," Ichigo said. "The council couldn't find someone already on Earth to take the message."

****

Tsunade looked on the two figures in the Uzumaki house suspiciously. From Hinata's discomfort, she knew the byakugan warrior saw something…strange as well, but Naruto's wife wasn't as surprised as she should have been. Perhaps there was something they had not yet said.

"Six years?" Tsunade said in disbelief.

"That's what we were told," Ichigo said, nodding. "We understand, believe me. Our daughter is separated from us almost the same way, and we can only speak to her through letters."

"And where is this place that it will take six-years just to train for the journey?" Tsunade asked. "And yet you can just appear here without any word from our guards and scouts?"

"We are limited in what we can say," Rukia said. "But I have prepared a visual…" she turned to look for her sketch book. "Hold on, where'd my sketchbook go?"

Ichigo looked decidedly and deliberately not at fault.

"Hmm," Rukia said as she looked about, frowning. "Oh well, I'll have to use the spare."

Ichigo's head drooped as he sighed in frustration and Rukia retrieved a small, pocket notebook and started flipping through a series of childishly drawn pictures of cute little bears and rabbits. Scattered about where short-hand notes and comments that made little sense to the people collected.

"Suffice to say that there are barriers between where we live and where you do," Rukia noted. The picture showed something like a giant purple mass chasing a bunch of rabbits. "It is dangerous even for experienced warriors and it is not a trip you want to make with someone that cannot keep up themselves. These dangers will not just end your life, but your very spirit."

Several people looked at the silly drawings and seemed to have trouble focusing on what the black-haired woman was actually saying.

"Wai!!!" a young voice called out. "These pictures are so cute!"

And everybody looked to where Ryoko was suddenly staring at the notebook just a foot or so away from Rukia and in the middle of everybody.

"Ryoko-chan," Hinata noted seriously.

The young martial-artist flinched and looked around at all the people staring at her.

"Ano…." she said.

"Please go back and watch your sister and our daughter," Hinata said. "We are having a private conversation."

"Hai, Uzumaki-sama," Ryoko said, bowing to each of the adults in the room. "Uzumaki-sama, Hokage-sama, Shinigami-sama, Shinigami-sama."

The girl was about to leave the room when several people reacted to what she had just said.

"Wait…Shinigami..?" Tsunade said. "Come back here."

"We'd like to speak to her too," Ichigo said.

Ryoko froze and turned to look at the adults again, her eyes showing orange.

Moving quickly, Hinata was up and standing soothingly at the girl's side.

"You're fine, don't worry," she said, relieved as the orange energy faded away. "We just need you to come back and talk to us."

"Ano…" Ryoko asked as the woman led her back into the circle of adults.

"Now why did you say 'Shinigami?'" Tsunade asked, staring at the two strangers to the village.

Ryoko hesitantly looked up and pointed to Rukia's drawings.

"I…in o..order for sh..shin..igami to pass from the S..soul S..s..society to the li..living..world, or back," Ryoko said, stutteringly, "a…a gate must be opened to t…travel through the barrier between worlds…an…and there are also the dang..dangers of l…losing the way or being s..stopped by the r..residents such as the …c..cleaner..which appears once ever..ry..seven days…"

She stopped and looked about nervously.

Rukia blinked and looked from her pictures to the girl.

"That's my lecture word for word for the classes at the academy," the black-haired woman noted.

"You use those pictures with the lecture?" Tsunade asked. "Including the short-hand symbols?"

"Of course I do," Rukia noted, the surprise of this development overwhelming the fact that a child just revealed her as a shinigami despite the fact that she was in a gigai at the moment.

"Ryoko-chan," Tsunade said, smiling. "Go back to the other room now. And please don't tell anybody about the Kurosakis."

"Hai, Hokage-sama," the girl said bowing and confused as she backed nervously out of the room.

Waiting for the girl to be gone, Tsunade turned toward the Uzumakis and the Kurosakis.

"The girl's a codebreaker," Tsunade explained. "She picks up on patterns and meanings with an almost preternatural speed. I'm guessing the short-hand blurbs are your speech notes. She read them."

"That's probably why her father had her around for the theft," Hinata noted in disapproval.

"She read Rukia's short hand?" Ichigo noted, surprised. "I didn't think even Rukia could do that."

The little woman glared at her husband and flashed out with a marker to cover his face with squiggles and marks to the mixed amusement and irritation of the others involved.

"So…" Tsunade said. "Jiraiya is in the next world…you could have told me this."

"I kinda thought you'd think I was crazy," Naruto noted.

"You are," Tsunade said. "But that doesn't make you dishonest."

Naruto rolled his eyes and shook his head.

"Six years no longer seems such an unreasonable time to prepare for a trip," Tsunade noted. "However, I think there is a problem we might both have."

"Oh, and what is that," Ichigo asked.

Tsunade produced a scroll and handed it over.

"That's a list of every sealing scroll reported to be missing after this little raid," Tsunade noted. "Some of them are harmless, stores of extra weapons and such, but there are three that are very dangerous and we know that at least one has been released. Either in our world or yours."

"If this is the one you're thinking of," Rukia said pointing to a word on the parchment. "The destruction of one seal won't be enough for completely releasing it."

"But if part of it is free," Tsunade noted. "Hopefully it was something else, but still, there are the other two and they can be bad just on their own."

Ichigo looked over his wife's shoulder and recognize the name in question from various legends.

"We'll talk to our bosses," he said. "In the meantime, we have a request for the boy's mother."

"Yes," Hinata noted, sitting up.

"A friend of ours is training your kid," Ichigo said. "She's sort of the Kage from the otherside, but she needs notes on how to train the byakugan. It doesn't survive death, you see and she doesn't want word getting around about what your son can potentially do."

That statement didn't make either Uzumaki comfortable.

Rukia herself was twitching at Ichigo's blunt phrasing.

"In anyway," Rukia said. "We probably won't be allowed over again. We still have living friends that don't know about the Soul Society, but we'll see about having the local reaper carry messages to you."

"Local reaper?" Tsunade noted, having troubles admitting to the idea that even a spirit could be around Konoha without being noticed eventually. "I see, I don't suppose we have anymore business?"

"Not really," Ichigo noted. "So, we should probably be going."

He stood up and bowed to the gathered shinobi.

"Then we'll expect you to take care of young Jiraiya," Tsunade said, also standing. "If the Uzumakis find this acceptable."

"Hard to say acceptable," Naruto said irritably. "But I don't see much choice."

"We will have to trust you," Hinata noted.

"You'll be hearing from us," Rukia noted as she stood as well and, bowing, left the Uzumaki house.

Tsunade was preparing to leave when she noted Hinata and Naruto looking at her.

"I'm sure everything will be fine," Tsunade said. "Though this is by far the most bizarre thing I've ever heard of."

"There's something else," Hinata noted. "About the Saotome girl, Ryoko. We need you and Sakura to check her over."

"Oh," Tsunade said. "Is she sick?"

"Something like it," Naruto said as they prepared to report the afternoon's events.

****

As the years started to pass, something in a dark prison twisted quietly and endlessly toward a spot of light.

Sixteen eyes twisted about within the darksome prison rolling about each other in eight pairs as they edged closer to the tiny hole and investigated it.


	4. Time Passes

In Kaminari no Kuni, visitors from Hi no Kuni looked on a small plot of land that had, until a few weeks past, been well cared for. Quietly, under night's cloak, they filtered into the house and yard.

The conclusion was swift.

"They haven't been here for days, maybe more than a week," Kiba said as he walked out beside his ever present friend Akamaru. "This guy travels fast, the Hokage had us out after him within two hours. With this address."

"Any sign of where they might have gone?" Neji asked grimly.

"Not that I found," Tenten noted with a frown. "This fellow seems to be as slippery as they come. There's some ashes in the fire."

"Let's fall back then," Neji said. "Come back in by day and ask the locals if they know anything."

"I have a feeling this is going to be a dead end," Kiba noted grimly.

Neji couldn't help but agree. Still, they couldn't leave any stones unturned.

"Moment," Tenten said, going back into the building and taking one of her blank scrolls. "They left their daughters' things behind. We might as well collect those."

The kunoichi's attitude was more than a little angry. She was a mother herself and couldn't really understand writing off a child in the manner these two had apparently done.

When none of the villagers could say what had happened to Nodoka Saotome or her husband, they were not surprised. There was some discussion of a son in Mizu no Kuni, but there was no specific knowledge. The two had not been very close to the other villagers and most interaction with the family seemed to have been through the two girls.

Disappointed and a thirst for retribution frustrated, the ninjas and the dog returned home.

****

"Natsume and Ryuu sent word," Akane said over her shoulder as she rocked the infant to sleep. "They'll be visiting soon. I think my father is coming with them."

"That'll be good," Ranma said. "Been a month or two since we saw them."

Ranma walked to the door to answer the sound of the knocking, listening to his wife take care of their son and smiling at the peaceful sound. Somewhere, Noriko was keeping her promise to help around the house. Loshun was in the back practicing her own style's katas. Aside from those two, the students had mostly gone home for the day.

Even Miyako had headed home to fulfill her own family duties, though she had lingered a fair bit.

Looking out the window, the sun was more than half-way set already.

When he opened it, he more than slightly wished that he hadn't.

"Hey boy!" Genma said loudly. "We heard the great news."

"Oh, I'm so proud of you, Ranma," Nodoka crowed right next to him.

"Mom," Ranma said, nodding respectfully to his mother. "Oyaji."

The reference to his father was much less affectionate.

"I didn't expect to see you," he said blandly.

"Oh, and how could we stay away from our son as he finally set about building his family," Nodoka asked. "Don't worry about your father, he will be on his best behavior."

Ranma looked over his shoulder and noticed a very sour Akane looking down towards the voices.

"He'd better be," Ranma said. "Right now, I'm going to set some ground rules."

"That's as it should be," Nodoka noted in acceptance. "This is your house."

"No, this is our house," Ranma said. "Akane's and mine. That's ground rule one, Akane's my wife, not my servant. Ground rule number two, you don't give the other four masters of Musabetsu Kakuto Tadashita-Ryu any crap about me. That includes Akane, the Kumons and Kurumi Tendo."

"But aren't you the Grandmaster?" Nodoka asked, curiously.

"We run by council, Mom," Ranma said. "Not by decree."

"I see," Nodoka said, not certain if she agreed with the attitude.

"Ground rule number three," Ranma said. "No talk about arranging marriages."

"Certainly you don't expect," Genma noted.

"This is the big one now," Ranma said, interrupting his father. "Ground rule number four: If you so much as think about 'training' one of my students, I'll flay the skin off your cursed form for a rug."

Genma swallowed as Ranma stared hard into his face.

"We can accept those rules," Nodoka said without breaking a sweat.

"Fine," Ranma said, again looking back over his shoulder.

Akane had gone back into the living room out of sight of the hallway.

"Noriko!" he called out.

"Yes, Uncle Ranma," the brown haired child said as she came as quickly as she could. She glanced ahead toward the visitors, wondering why the hostility being displayed by both her aunt and uncle.

"Find Loshun and set up the fourth bedroom for two guests," Ranma said.

"Hai, Uncle Ranma," Noriko said, she started to leave and then paused. "Aunt Akane seems a bit…irritated with something. Is there anything I should know?"

"Nah," Ranma said. "Don't worry about it."

"Why not the first or the second," Nodoka asked, a bit disappointed.

Ranma looked decidedly embarrassed as he reached back behind his head.

"The first bedroom is the nursery now," he said. "Loshun is staying in the second bedroom for the next few years. And the third is Noriko's in case she needs to stay longer than a few hours."

Granted, Kuno wasn't aware of where his daughter stayed at such times, but that was for the sake of Nabiki's patience with the man's ranting. Ranma half-thought that the only reason Kuno ranted about him any longer was habit, but it was still annoying.

"That'll be fine then," Nodoka said after some consideration.

As the elder Saotomes crossed the threshold, Genma had to make a comment of some type.

"Taking another Kuno as a student, boy?" Genma noted. "You'd think you'd learn after the last one. But at least you won the Amazons over as students."

"Joketsuzoku, Oyaji," Ranma grumbled. "Say it right."

He had no wish to argue policy with his father, nor did he feel that he should have to defend his students.

"I'm going to end up regretting this," the grandmaster said, shaking his head.

Three weeks later, when his parents moved into a house not five miles away, he knew for sure that he was going to facing some sort of trouble soon.

****

Orihime and Tatsuki sat in the pavilion across from the other half of the team sent to deal with this sickness.

The expressions were grim.

"Yesterday," Tofu noted. "We had this under control. We'd agreed it was not a contagion, but a contamination."

"Yes, and we've treated the symptoms and Orihime-san has purified the contamination," Kasumi agreed. "So why are we seeing relapses?"

"There could be another source of contamination," Tatsuki suggested. "Another mine, maybe?"

Orihime shook her head.

"There is something…dark behind this," Orihime said sadly.

Tatsuki looked to her carefully, resisting the urge to ask if they were dealing with a Hollow of some kind.

"I don't know what," Orihime said. "But it's not here completely yet. It's not strong yet. I think we should retreat the symptoms, in another day or so, the sickness will pass as Tofu-sensei expected."

"I think we should check for a second source of contaminated water before we leave," Kasumi noted. "I believe Orihime-san when she says this new sickness is supernatural in nature and weak, but it would be irresponsible not to check regardless. After all, it is the only way we can prevent re-infection."

"Yep," Orihime said. "We have to do everything we can to make sure this ends now."

But part of her was fearful of just what this portent was warning about.

****

"I'm worried about you Miyako-chan," Aunt Yuzu said outright. "Now, I can understand that you see ghosts, but we both know that your parents have passed on. They're not ghosts."

"I know that Aunt Yuzu," Miyako said seriously, wondering why her aunt had called both her Karin here. "Otherwise I'd see them everyday."

"I suppose so, but" and Yuzu hesitated, "you seem to be obsessed with 'growing stronger.' I haven't seen you with any of your friends."

"That's because most of her friends have moved away," Karin put in.

"I met some new friends recently," Miyako noted. "You know, Loshun and Noriko?"

"Yes, I suppose they are interesting girls," Yuzu agreed.

She knew Noriko Kuno from around town. The girl had a high-minded way of talking that was purely from her father's side of the family, but she was more or less harmless and rarely meant offense to anyone. When she did mean offense, it was usually couched in dry innuendo and entendre rather than eloquent speech, and that was purely her mother.

As for the other, Loshun. The girl was a foreigner, though Yuzu had deduced that she was from an important family. Despite the poor grammar from struggling with the new language, the girl had the same high-manner of speech that Noriko did. However, that meant that she was likely to move away eventually.

"It still does not change the fact that I cannot encourage this idea that being a strong fighter will ensure you can see your parents in the next life," Yuzu said. "I don't see where you can be getting it."

"From the ghosts," Miyako said. "Besides, it's fun."

"Everything I know about ghosts is that they are very prone to believing rumors," Yuzu noted.

"You know there's some danger to just being what Miyako is," Karin said firmly. "I have the same problem and you a little less so since you can feel them around. It's best she learns to take care of herself."

"I suppose you're right," Yuzu said reluctantly.

She sighed as the sound of someone entering the cleric came to their ears, and then the fair-haired woman stepped out of the room quickly to see who might need help this night.

As Yuzu Kurosaki left, Karin turned to look toward Miyako.

"She's just worried you'll die young like your father," Karin said. "It's not the same for her as us. She just knows when they're around. She doesn't know who they are and can't hear them or see them. For her, Ichigo and Rukia are gone, not just away."

Miyako nodded, brow furrowed in a manner that was cute at her age. As she got older though, she was going to start looking more and more like her parents when they held likewise expressions.

"Can't we just tell her?" Miyako asked.

"Wouldn't help," Karin said. "She'd just think it was a rumor."

****

Time passed and things changed or did not change.

****

Naruto walked into his house, tired to the bone. The mission had been a bit more involved than had been expected.

The client had not actually expected an actual assassination attempt, hiring a ninja to sit watch in the background had been nothing but a precautionary measure for this embassy. Neither Naruto, nor the Hokage had expected a ninja of such rank as was sent.

It was just lucky they'd assigned Naruto to the task rather than a chunin as might have been more normal.

He'd given his report in any case and it was finally time to hit home.

Walking into his house, he was surprised to find someone awake in the front room. There was a shock of blonde hair and at first he thought it might be Kuren, but as he got closer, the girl proved to be the younger Saotome, and she didn't seem to have noticed Naruto coming in.

In front of her on the table was an application to join the Konoha academy.

"What are you doing up this late," Naruto ask, drawing a trace of surprise from the usually sarcastic and non-pulsed girl.

In the time, the girl had never shown much interest in martial arts or shinobi. Joseibi'd played ninja with other kids and made a casual effort to listen to her sister's instructions, but otherwise she just shrugged the idea off, at least seemingly.

"I'm thinking about something," Joseibi said after a moment. "When did you get back?"

"Right now," Naruto said, coming around the couch and sitting across from the girl. "You're thinking about joining the academy?"

"I'm going to be old enough now," Joseibi noted firmly.

Naruto thought about what to say in response. Joseibi was a kid, and an outsider, she couldn't possibly be able to see everything that it was to be a ninja. By the time most of the children here were her age, they'd already experienced loss and shadows of the responsibility of the position. He and Sasuke, wherever the Uchiha was these days, had experienced it somewhat more extremely than others.

Even Kuren had, to a lesser degree.

"You don't have to just because you live here," Naruto noted. "There are a number of civilian families in the village. You don't have a duty to Konoha like the shinobi families here."

"I'm not thinking of a duty to Konoha," Joseibi said.

"What are you thinking of?" Naruto asked.

Joseibi frowned a moment and looked up toward the bedrooms before looking down.

"I have to take care of my sister," Joseibi said.

"She can take care of herself," Naruto said.

"No, she can take care of people," Joseibi said. "Mostly me. She can't take care of herself. So I have to."

Naruto frowned at the sentiment, the girl seemed a lot more mature than her age would imply. In addition, he couldn't really argue against her opinion. Outside of her training, Ryoko tended to leave choices up to the people around her. He could respect an urge to protect a precious person as well, but…

"And how does becoming shinobi protect your sister?" Naruto asked.

"Because, this will keep her here, away from them," Joseibi said.

Naruto gestured for her to continue.

"If I'm just going to a normal school," the blonde Saotome noted quietly. "Ryoko will trust you to take care of me, and she'll go looking for our parents. She'll find them, and then they'll have her again. If I'm a ninja, she'll insist on staying to make me train harder. She'll want to make sure I'm strong enough to protect myself."

"What did your parents do to you girls?" Naruto asked, seeing an opportunity to breach some of what the girls kept secret.

"Me, nothing," Joseibi said. "Ryoko watches me. But…you know how Hinata-san counts when she wants us to do something?"

"Yeah," Naruto said, shrugging.

"If Ryoko does something Mother doesn't like," Joseibi said. "She starts to draw the family sword. I don't know what happens if she finishes. Ryoko doesn't last that long and won't tell me. But it scares her a lot. And you might want to ask her about 'proper training' sometime."

Naruto made a note to do just that and leaned back, considering. Eventually he released a long breath. Perhaps these girls did know something of the suffering this life held.

"Okay," Naruto said, setting himself forward. "You've got some problems ahead, so pay attention."

Joseibi blinked in confusion wanting to ask what Naruto meant, but the jonin continued talking.

"There's the fact you weren't born here," he said. "There's your curse. And there's the fact that you're going to be losing a lot of your free time…"

****

Jiraiya caught his breath and looked down at the monster below him wondering just where it had come from. One moment, he was in town on an errand for Soifon-sensei and the next, there was a weird looking centipede thing rampaging through Rukongai.

He'd recognized it from description and pictures, though, a hollow, but he hadn't thought hollows were supposed to appear in this world.

The ninja'd been keeping it busy for the last three minutes, and the battle was telling on the both of them.

Now, the thing was crawling up the building Jiraiya had settled on, coiling about it like a snake or worm.

Gritting his teeth, Jiraiya leaped away up into the sky above Rukongai and tossed out a small succession of shuriken, watching as they slashed through legs and antenna. It was a wide pattern of small injuries, and it was also the last of the tools he had on him.

The chuckling creature leaped up to follow him, almost looking like it was flying as it writhed through the air. It was looming over Jiraiya as the ninja worked his hands swiftly and the monster came crashing down on a simple log.

Jiraiya gritted his teeth as he leaped back up into the air over the creature and came down hard on the monster's white head. Remembering some of what his teacher used in training, he thrust his hands forward and tried to remember as the wind fluttered through his hair.

"I need something to fight with," he said firmly, pulling every bit of energy he could into his hand.

Slowly, he could feel his chakra and something else besides come together into an almost physical shape between his fingers and he gripped it tightly, recognizing the hilt of a kunai.

Without a moment of hesitation, he launched the kunai forward and he could almost feel the weapon's flight, as if it were part of him and not merely a weapon.

The centipede was just looking back up as Jiraiya's kunai struck with an impact that did not seem to agree with its mass. The entire monster shuddered as a huge hole through its skull.

The centipede-Hollow faded away as Jiraiya landed. Exhausted, he stumbled over to a building, picking up the kunai he'd just defeated the monster with as he did so. Upon reaching the building he leaned back against it and slid down to a seat, relieved that the battle was over.

"Wow!" a childish voice declared loudly next to him.

Looking up, he saw a wide-eyed smiling face framed by pink hair looking down at him. He recognized the face from seeing her occasionally, Yachiru Kusajishi, lieutenant of the 11th division.

"Aren't you human?" the girl asked. "How'd you do that?"

"Do what?" he asked.

The girl smiled and grabbed the hand he held his kunai in and jerked it up to his face.

"Do this," she said. "It's a funny zanpakuto."

"Zan.." Jiraiya said in confusion. "It's just a kunai."

Yachiru seemed to think for a moment and then came to a decision.

"All right," she said. "Come this way."

She grabbed Jiraiya and started rushing off down the street, dragging the boy as if he were a piece of paper behind him. She was reaching the gate when a figure stepped in front of her and she came to sudden stop.

Looking up she and Jiraiya saw the distinctive orange hair of Ichigo Kurosaki.

"Ichi!" Yachiru said. "Look, it's another human with a zanpakuto."

As she said this she lifted up Jiraiya's hand again and showed off the kunai the young ninja had summoned.

"So, let me guess," Ichigo said. "You're taking him to go see Kenpachi."

"MmmHmm," Yachiru said. "If all humans that have their own Zanpakuto are as strong as you, he'll want to make sure Grape-hair gets strong too."

"Then why don't you leave him to his own master," Ichigo asked.

"Huh?" she asked.

"I'm studying under Soifon-sensei," Jiraiya said, standing up from where he had just been dragged.

Yachiru thought about it for a moment and frowned.

"But Kenny said Stealth Force aren't fun at all," Yachiru protested.

"Soifon is one of the strongest captains, isn't she?" Ichigo reminded the pink-haired girl. "She beat me once."

"That's right, Pigtails is very strong," Yachiru noted before nodded and letting Jiraiya's hand go. "All right! Grape-hair can learn from Pigtails and then have fun with Kenny later. Bye bye, Ichi! Bye bye, Grape Hair! I have to go tell Kenny!"

And with that, the pink-haired lieutenant was off and running.

"Is she crazy?" Jiraiya asked Ichigo.

"Very," the shinigami said. "I'm guessing you beat a hollow somewhere."

"Yeah, I guess," Jiraiya said. "I think it was luck though, I had to hold it off for something like three minutes."

"There were a few other trespassers about," Ichigo explained. "We're in the process of cleaning up whichever ones avoided the first battles."

Jiraiya noted that Ichigo's eyes rested somewhat on the kunai in Jiraiya's hand.

"Is it a zanpakuto?" he asked hesitantly.

"We'll see," Ichigo said. "I don't think its all spiritual pressure though. We'll see."

****

Joseibi walked down the street from the residence she shared with Ryoko, feeling a little sore from the work Ryoko had put her through.

The technique in question was the Musabetsu Ja Jinku no Hebi. It was the advanced Musabetsu-Kakuto Ryu footwork training technique. Teaching the practioner to move at the instant of need, interrupting steps as dangers became apparent and tracking the sound of danger.

So named because the training their father had invented for it was to find a large number of poisonous snakes which the trainee had to walk through without getting bitten. Of course, Ryoko wouldn't endanger Joseibi that way, so she hadn't used poisonous snakes.

Instead, it was a network of mousetraps and tripwires that Joseibi had to navigate. While it was definitely much safer than what her sister Ryoko had to navigate, it was certainly no less easy.

Ryoko must have been preparing the training for hours the previous night, underneath what looked like standard earth were boards settled unevenly so that every step through the mousetrap field had the potential for shifting one of several mousetraps so that the overall placement changed on Joseibi with each step she took.

And the triggering of mousetraps far away wasn't any better, since they seemed to be set to leap out at random when triggered.

Looking back over her shoulder to see the smiling black-haired girl waving her down the street, Joseibi resisted the urge to rub at one of the bruises that she'd acquired from the day's training. Ryoko had purchased some ointment for bruises, and it itched terribly.

"Ryoko-ne-chan," Joseibi said under her breath as she waved negligently back toward her sister. "You're devious when you want to be."

Joseibi turned back down the street, heading for the academy and walking in the doors with a yawn.

There were still some looks her way from the other students, but for the most part no one really thought much of her. She took her normal seat beside the Uzumaki kid, one of the only other blondes in the class.

"Morning Kuren," Joseibi said.

"Morning," Kuren said, as she scratched out notes on the paper in front of her.

Joseibi nodded and then leaned back to take a few minutes of rest before the instructor came in. Above them, Joseibi heard a dismissive snort that she knew came from Jubei Lee.

"You're always trying to sleep, Saotome," he said. "You should work harder. By the time dawn lights, I've been training an hour, and then I come here."

Joseibi didn't bother to comment that her own regimen was comparable. In fact her only comment was to crack an eye, look at the boy, and pointedly give a loud snore.

****

"That was a nice fight, girl," the masked figure said, laughing down at the injured form of the girl at his feet. "You're almost worthy to be a shinobi, but it wasn't enough."

"Varlets," the girl spat as she tried to stand. "For what purpose do you accost a scion of the Ku…"

One of the others smashed his fist into her face, knocking her down again.

"Simple girl," one of the others noted. "Your parents are interfering in something not their business. You're going to help us convince them otherwise."

"Stop talking to her and just knock her out," the third noted. "We don't want her attracting attention."

"Too late," a young voice declared from the mouth of the ally behind them.

There was a trace of concern in the three wandering-nin until they saw that the speaker was just another sixteen year old girl. This one in a raggedy old gi with a long rope of a belt that may have been white once upon a time wrapped around her waist twice. Hang from her back on a bit of rope was a bokken.

"Miyako-chan," Noriko said, gasping as she rolled to a kneeling position. "They're too strong for you, get help."

"It's too late for that," the leader of the trio said with a smirk of his own.

"Don't worry, Noriko," Miyako said with a confident smirk. "I already sent Jun for a doctor..or four."

Taking the insult for what it was worth, the ninja swept forward against Miyako, meaning to bring her down fast before she could give them the sort of extended chase their target had already.

The forward ninja lashed out at the girl, who still seemed to have taken no stance, with straight tanto. He was surprised when the girl easily dived aside with a dancing smirk. Then a foot caught up his and he was flying through the air forward until a hand grabbed hold of his clothing and twirled him about into the two ninja behind him.

"I'm an Initiate of the Musabetsu Kakuto Tadashita-Ryu," Miyako announced. "That makes me the worth of several genin in a straight up fight."

Both ninja dodged their flying comrade, not responding to her boast, one leaping over and the other rolling beneath. Miyako ducked low herself, rolling along the ground to intercept the low ninja and dive under the high one.

Having spent most of her training with Akane-Sensei, Miyako was more specialized towards the Tendo-Ryu than the Saotome-Ryu.

Kenjutsu, grappling, groundfighting.

And while she was skilled at the Saotome-Ryu, she much preferred to stick to her strengths at the moment. This was a battle, not a match, not a spar.

There was a friend at stake in this.

Much to the rolling ninja's surprise, he came up off the ground not at his own behest, but in the hands of his supposed target. Miyako slammed him headfirst into the wall and, keeping her momentum, spun around again to hurl the man against his recovering partner further down the alley.

Almost growling, the third ninja landed and was instantly leaping at Miyako. With a simple smirk, the girl reached back for her bokken and slashed it forward to meet the man head on. Even through the blade, she felt the man's skull crack and his nose shatter as he came to a nerveless mass in front of Miyako.

"Aiya," a new voice said, joining in on the scene. "You no leave any fun for Loshun."

"Sorry about that," Miyako said. "Can you help me with Noriko."

Miyako leaned down to help the Kuno girl to her feet. Nodding, Loshun was quickly also at Kuno's side and letting the beaten girl rest between their shoulders, the three walked out of the alley.

"Noriko need train more often," Loshun noted. "Would not be so low ranked then."

As Miyako left the alley and looked down the street, standing atop a building and watching them was…something. Not really a hollow, but she was certain it was just as dangerous.

It seemed, more or less, like a patch of living shadow, too black for her to see any features upon it. Despite this, she thought she felt it frown before it turned to fade away.

****

The gate guards watched as the woman approached, backpack and clothes showing the signs of long travelling. As she got closer they saw that, under her travelling cloak, she dressed in a simple style that seemed more like a townswoman than they would have expected. A long ribbon in her hair was tied with a knot that they recognized as being easy to undo with little more than a tug.

She stopped at the gates with a simple smile and extensive smile.

"Hello," the guards said in a friendly manner, visitors to the village not entirely uncommon given how much business the village took in over the year.

"Hiya!" the woman declared enthusiastically. "You wouldn't happen to have anything to eat would you? I'm starving."

"Not more than some snacks, but there are plenty of restaurants in the village," the guard said. "Are you here to hire a ninja?"

"No, no," the woman said happily. "I'm here to fight one…or more."

The guards frowned and stood up straight, seeming a bit surprised at the result.

"Oh, sorry, I haven't introduced myself," she said. "Kurumi Tendo, Master of Musabetsu Kakuto Tadashita-Ryu."

"A martial artist," the guards noted, somewhat more cautious now.

"Hai," Kurumi said, smiling. "I've heard of some of your taijutsu masters and I've come to test myself against them, perhaps exchange some knowledge."

"Wait right here," the left hand guard said as he looked back and nodded for a runner to head into town.

"Right," Kurumi said. "So…about those snacks."

By the time someone came from the village to meet this stranger, the guards were bemoaning the loss of their supply of shift snacks…and Kurumi was still starving.

Kurumi watched as a woman who appeared to be in her twenties walked up the path, flanked by a pair of chunin. The wandering Tendo whistled in appreciation at the power she could feel in the woman's presence and noted that the youthful appearance was merely that.

She stood up and, with a bright smile bowed low before the woman, recognizing her as someone important.

"Hello," she said cheerily. "I am Kurumi Tendo of the Musabetsu Kakuto Tadashita-Ryu, I've come to test myself against the might of Konoha."

"Welcome," the blonde woman said, a smile on her face, but full of caution. "You say you are Master of Musabetsu Kakuto Ryu?"

The smile on Kurumi's face faded.

"No," she said firmly. "I practice Musabetsu Kakuto Tadashita-Ryu." She emphasized the difference.

"My apologies," Tsunade said, noting the woman's attitude and the change in the name which implied a redeemed incarnation of the school. "In any case, we might be able to accommodate you, but first, we have a new crop of ninja graduating today, perhaps you would like to see our next generation?"

"Is there going to be food?" Kurumi asked.

"I'm not sure," Tsunade said. "There might be." She shrugged and then looked about to see the neatly stacked and emptied snack boxes sitting beside where the woman had been as Tsunade made her way to the gate.

"Well, let's go," Kurumi noted. "Always fun to watch the little ones."

Kurumi stood beside Tsunade as they watched the young students come out to the waiting group of parents to announce whether or not they had now graduated. She scanned the crowd, noting more than a few warriors of impressive chi.

The place was brimming with strong fighters to try out her skills against.

Kurumi was mostly focusing on this, though pausing to take in one young ninja or another and gauge their likely potential. Strangely enough, she found herself looking a rather fidgety sixteen-year old girl wearing a familiar style of glasses and holding herself like a bundle of nerves.

The girl was far from the most powerful person in the gathering, but she had an impressive amount of chi for one so young. Actually, it reminded Kurumi of another young person she'd known long ago. There were even some physical resemblances to her friend's female form back when they were younger.

Kurumi was letting that distract her from both the children and fighters more on her level when a declared statement brought her focus whirling to the children again.

"Joseibi Saotome! Genin of Konoha," a blonde graduate was yelling with a very familiar sarcastic smirk on her face.

"Wai!" the black-haired girl in spectacles declared, waving victory flags in each hand as she rushed forward to congratulate the younger girl, much to the other's embarrassment.

"Saotome…" Kurumi said, frowning.

"You recognize the name?" Tsunade asked.

"Our school is taught primarily by two families," Kurumi said. "The Saotome and the Kumon. Saotome was also one of the primary families to teach the old school."

"What about Tendo," Tsunade asked.

"Soun Tendo was a master of the old school," Kurumi said. "But he doesn't teach now, and his daughters are all married, and two don't practice the Art. I don't teach yet."

"There are a lot of Saotomes in the world," Tsunade noted. "How are you sure these belong to your comrade's family."

"There are many families with the name, but few who move like those do," Kurumi said, pointing. "How'd they come to be here?"

"Their father tried to steal some scrolls from our archives," Tsunade said. "He left them behind when he was caught."

"That would make it Genma," Kurumi said, spitting the name. "This is why you wanted me to come here, isn't it."

"I apologize for the deception," Tsunade noted. "But we've been looking for him for quite a while."

"I can tell you where to find him," Kurumi said grimly. "Can I meet the children?"

"That'll be arranged," Tsunade said.

"I can tell you right now," Kurumi said. "If Ranma knew he had sisters, he'd never let his father near them."

"Given the circumstances…I can completely understand why," Tsunade noted.

"Now…" Kurumi said, looking about. "Where's the food?"

****

A somber gathering came together in what was still called the Tendo Dojo though it was now run by Saotomes. Nabiki Tendo, nervous and angry at the same time paced back and forth behind her husband as he sat across from her sisters and their husbands.

"She'll be fine," Kasumi noted. "There were no major injuries."

"I believe they were aiming to kidnap her and she proved more capable than they expected,"

"What is going on, that has our student, your daughter getting targeted by shinobi," Akane asked finally.

Kuno shuffled uncomfortably.

"Tell them, Tachi," Nabiki said. "We've tried to keep it to ourselves."

"Ranma Saotome," Kuno said after turning toward his wife. "You are villain and a black magician, but you have ever shown loyalty to the land we both call home. Have you not."

"I'll agree to some of that," Ranma said, rolling his eyes at the continuation of Kuno's game. "What about it."

"We suspect…we're not sure," Nabiki said. "Honest merchants are being ruined and certain samurai are having…unfortunate accidents."

"We've been endeavouring to seek what is behind these affairs," Kuno noted. "And containing it."

"Why didn't you come to us when you started suspecting something?" Akane asked.

"In all honesty," Nabiki said. "We've been trying to use a scalpel, you guys are something of a bludgeon. We've been pretty successful, we thought the problem was going to be over soon."

"There is not much of political subtlety in your art," Tofu had to admit to the Saotomes.

"We've sent Sasuke to Kirigakure no Sato," Kuno said. "Certainly this matter will be shortly dealt with."

"So what do we do about Noriko," Akane asked.

"Excuse me, Akane-Sensei," a young voice said, drawing eyes toward her. "I think I need to say something."

"Saotome, control your students," Kuno protested. "They should know better than to interrupt their betters."

"I hate to say it," Ranma said. "But Tatewaki has a point here, Miyako. This isn't your business."

"She's my friend," Miyako noted. "Besides, I…saw something."

"Saw something," Nabiki asked.

"The Kurosaki family is strong with the ability to deal with spirits," Kasumi explained succinctly. "Inoue-san has mentioned something of that ability to us occasionally."

"You are teaching witches now, Saotome?" Kuno accused.

Miyako was about to protest but Ranma raised his hand to stop her.

"Whatever, Tatewaki," Ranma said. "Loyal to the country, remember."

"Indeed," the samurai noted. "So, what foul vision did you have then child?"

"A shadow," Miyako said. 'It was watching the fight and left after we'd rescued Noriko. It wasn't happy that we'd won."

"There are demons involved then," Kuno said.

"Loshun returns to Joketsuzoku soon," Ranma said. "Miyako, I think you and Noriko should accompany her. A training trip will be good for you."

"Right, sensei," Miyako said. "I'll have to talk to my aunts first."

"Yeah, figured as much," Ranma said, sighing. "Anyway, that's out past Hi no Kuni, should keep Noriko safe."

"Unless they send someone after the children," Nabiki noted.

"Loshun and Miyako are strong enough to protect her," Akane said.

"And Miyako's eyes will keep open for demons," Tofu agreed. "And we'll speak to Orihime and her friends for our own demon problems."

"Besides, it will be a little bit for Noriko to be ready to travel," Kasumi said idly. "By that time, Ryuu and Natsume will have arrived and then be ready to leave."

"A decoy," Nabiki said. "Make sure they try to target the other masters while the girls sneak under their radar?"

Ranma nodded and turned toward Miyako.

"Need help talking to your aunts?" he asked.

"No," Miyako said. "I got it."

****

"Hello, Pigtails!" a loud voice declared cheerfully as she marched her way into the Stealth Force's office.

Soifon's eyes twitched at the nickname.

"Yachiru," she said, laying down her pen to look at the young and scarily powerful shinigami. "What brings you here?"

It was a silly question of course. What ever brought the girl to her compound except her student. The girl was here, or at the Kurosakis, as often as she was at Byakuya's.

"I was wondering if I could find Grape-Head and see if he's ready to play with Kenny yet," Yachiru explained cheerfully.

"As a matter of fact," Soifon said. "We'll be seeing how he has progressed later."

The matter was slightly bitter for her, actually. The captains had voted, soon after Jiraiya's defeat of that hollow that had been part of the still unexplained incursion, that he should be tested and see if he had the strength to make the trip.

Soifon felt, no, knew that he could. She had trained him, after all, and the Captain's table had decided not to allow her to continue to underestimate her student. Which meant, soon, he wouldn't be her student much longer, unless she wanted to take trips to the human world herself, and the allowance of that would be unlikely.

"Oh, right, Kenny told me about that," Yachiru said, smiling. "The lieutenants are going to be there too…ooo! Can I be part of the test! That'll be fun!"

Soifon grimaced and narrowed her eyes at the little pink haired demon that had blocked her cat-bee phone idea.

"Ask the other captains," Soifon said. "I'm not to be a part of designing this test."

"Oh, why not?" Yachiru asked.

"Because I was the one that trained him," Soifon noted, eyebrow twitching.

"Oh, right!" Yachiru said. "Anyway! Bye!"

And with that, the little annoyance was darting out of the office and off to do heavens knew what. Leaving Soifon alone in her office.

"Take my master and take my student," she muttered darkly.

****

"Gods, Miyako, that's not a training trip, that's a bodyguard mission," Yuzu said aghast.

"I know," she said. "But this is Noriko, and Loshun will be there with us. We can't let anything hurt her."

Yuzu looked on her niece, a chill feeling running up her spine as she realized that Miyako had grown to be a warrior just like Ichigo. What's worse, there was nothing she could really do to prevent Miyako from leaving. Sixteen was old enough to make your own decisions by law.

And besides…she was going to protect a friend.

Yuzu couldn't tell her know without being selfish.

****

Ryoko looked at the stranger in the Hokage's office and wondered if this was why she had been called to the building. Right now, Joseibi was learning who her team was and meeting her jonin, something Ryoko wanted to witness. There was no way she could ignore a summons from the master of this city though, she owed them for the hospitality.

Behind her, the Uzumakis stood, in place of parents, Ryoko supposed. Probably they were wondering what the situation was as well. Ryoko wondered why they weren't watching Kuren to see what instructor she'd get, but then the Saotome was not aware that new graduates were usually given some privacy for that meeting.

"Hello, Ryoko-chan," Tsunade said. "We have someone here to meet you."

"H..hai, Hokage-sama," Ryoko said nervously, noting a growing frown on the stranger's face.

"Introduce yourself," Tsunade said.

"Ano…." Ryoko said, standing in strict posture and still managing to give the impression of fidgeting.

"This is a stranger," Tsunade said. "You need to introduce yourself properly."

"Oh!" Ryoko said. "Hai! Hokage-sama."

The woman stepped forward watching Ryoko in a manner that did nothing to help her normal nervous manner.

"I..I am Ryoko Saotome of the Musabetsu Kakuto Saotome-Ryu," Ryoko said bowing deeply.

The woman arched an eyebrow at the mode of address and then bowed herself, a lot more casually.

"Kurumi Tendo, Master of Musabetsu Kakuto Tadashita-Ryu," the woman said to the shock of both the Uzumakis and Ryoko.


	5. Events in Konoha

"E…e…excuse me, Tendo-Sama," Ryoko said. "D..did you say Musabetsu Kakuto Tadashita-Ryu?"

"That's right," Kurumi said, leaning forward to talk to the short girl. "And please, just call me Kurumi."

Naruto started to lift a hand to signal for the woman not to bother but it was too late.

"H…hai, Kurumi-sama," Ryoko said.

"No," the elder martial artist said, frowning. "Kurumi."

"I did say Kurumi-sama, d..did I not?" Ryoko asked, blinking.

"Yes, but just Kurumi," Kurumi repeated.

"Ano…." The girl responded confused.

"You know what, make it Kurumi-sensei," the Tendo woman said shaking her head in a trace of exasperation.

"Hai, Kurumi-sensei," Ryoko said. "B..but, I do not understand, how are you a master of Musabetsu Kakuto Ryu."

"I'm not," Kurumi said. "The old school does not allow women the rank of master. The old school barely even has ranks, actually."

"Old school…ano…" Ryoko said. "I..I…do not understand."

"We'll discuss the history of our schools later," Kurumi said before straightening up and looking over to Naruto and Hinata. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to ignore you. I understand you've been taking care of the girls since they came here."

"That's correct," Hinata said with an analyzing look. "So forgive us if we're…suspicious."

"Your first encounter with us was…with a relic," Kurumi said as if that explained everything. "I'm surprised the guards didn't try to kill me the moment I gave my school's name. We barely tolerated him ourselves only because we weren't aware he'd done anything to us recently."

"Ano…" Ryoko said. "Father is in more trouble, is he not? Wh..what did he do this time?"

The woman turned toward Ryoko meaningfully and looked her over, eyebrows arching at the girl's attitude. Didn't the girl even know? She frowned as she responded to the girl's question.

"How do you feel about cats, Ryoko-chan?" she asked.

"C..c..cats?" Ryoko asked, looking about.

Kurumi frowned as she tried to determine if that stutter was one of the girl's normal stutters or something indicative of the nekoken.

"Hai," Kurumi said, reaching out with a hand in imitation of a pawing cat. "Cats, meow, meow, hiss."

"Ano…" Ryoko responded, and for once the people around her seemed to be just as confused as she was. Only Tsunade seemed to frown at the inquiry in a manner that suggested she knew of something.

"I'm afraid I don't understand the question either," Hinata noted.

"Nevermind," Kurumi said, looking back toward the Uzumakis. "If it was a problem, she'd be out of the room by now. I'd like to have a spar with both girls, to see what they've been taught. Is there any problem with that?"

"I'll have to be there to watch what happens," Naruto said firmly.

"I expected that," Kurumi said thoughtfully. "And I know the girls have to choose on the matter as well, but…it's the best way to see what…what's been done."

"What about anything her mother's done," Naruto asked pointedly.

"Nodoka?" Kurumi asked, surprised. "I don't know her well, but I've never heard much bad about her. The contract, but I always assumed she was trapped into that by Genma. Do you know something I don't?"

"Mother has never been involved in my training," Ryoko said swiftly before anybody else could answer. "Well, directly that is."

Kurumi considered that statement and frowned.

"Anyway," she said. "This is not a challenge, Ryoko-chan. Understand, I won't be fighting all out. This is not a challenge. It is just a…test."

"H…hai," Ryoko said. "I understand."

"Mistress Kurumi has been giving me some history of her schools," Tsunade said. "And I've dispatched messengers to investigate her credibility and reputation. Until then, she's agreed to remain here. In the interim…"

"In the interim," Kurumi interrupted smirking confidently. "All you Konoha jonin are going to be getting one hell of a workout."

"Right, for a moment I forgot what you were here for originally," Tsunade noted.

"I am a martial artist," the woman said, shrugging. "It is the focus of my life."

"If you could give us some privacy?" Tsunade suggested to Kurumi.

"Right," Kurumi said. "There was a restaurant down the road from here, wasn't there?"

"There was this morning, yes," Tsunade noted irritably. "I don't know if they've recovered quite yet from this afternoon."

"Right, I'll see if I can find another then," Kurumi said, smiling as she left the room.

"I think food is that woman's focus in life," Tsunade noted before turning toward the Uzumakis and Ryoko.

Ryoko was looking toward the door where the supposed master of her Art, or at least a version of it, had just left.

"Ryoko-chan," Tsunade said.

"H..hai, Hokage-sama," Ryoko said, looking toward the leader of Konoha.

"You understand," Tsunade said. "You don't have to do anything this woman says if you don't want to. That's the gist of what she said and it's something we'll enforce. You are under our protection, you don't have to subject yourself to anything uncomfortable."

"Ano…" Ryoko said. "I…I do not think I shall refuse."

"Do you trust her?" Hinata asked Tsunade pointedly.

"Yes," the Hokage said simply.

"I'll take your word on it," Naruto said, with an accompanying nod from Hinata.

"Good," Tsunade said. "I know you've…suffered from this school before, we all know. I don't think this will be the same."

Ryoko shuffled nervously at the reminder.

"It's already not the same," Hinata noted as she reached forward to pat Ryoko on the shoulder reassuringly.

"Ryoko," Tsunade said. "You might want to go see if your sister has met her new team or not. Perhaps tell her something of this."

"Hai, Hokage-sama," Ryoko said turning to leave to the room with a thoughtful expression on her face.

As that left the elder Uzumakis alone with Tsunade, the two stepped forward to hear what the Hokage had to tell them.

"Any messages from your son of late?" Tsunade asked.

"There was something about a pink-haired lunatic," Naruto said.

"And I reminded him that Sakura is here," Hinata noted in a manner that was unusually tartly for her as she smirked at her husband.

The letters they had started getting made the separation easier. It was good to here something of what was going on in their son's life.

Anything really.

Especially as the subject of the return came up fairly frequently.

"She's not that bad," Naruto said.

"Well," Tsunade noted. "Her choice in sensei aside, she did marry Rock Lee."

"Whatever," Naruto said. "What was the deal with asking about cats, did that make any sense to you?" He turned toward his wife questioningly.

"No, not at all," Hinata said. "Tsunade-sensei, did you know what she meant?"

"Yes," Tsunade said. "I'd tested that myself two years ago. Ended up watching Ryoko play with cats and kittens for two hours."

As fun as the girl had apparently been having, it was hard not to see her watching and imitating the way the cats sparred with each other either.

"Again: What's the deal?" Naruto asked.

"There's a training technique that provokes a split personality triggered by an extreme phobia to cats," Tsunade noted. "It's one of the techniques I'd found in trying to diagnose Ryoko's fire problem. Called the nekoken. Didn't seriously think anybody would use that method though, until our guest started testing it."

"What's the training," Hinata asked.

"You wrap a trainee head to toe in raw fish of some sort and then drop them into a pit full of starving cats," Tsunade said conversationally. "Insane, I know. It's listed in some of the more obscure medical texts under trauma induced psychoses."

"Anything on what was done to her?" Naruto asked.

"The problem with her chakra?" Tsunade noted. "Not yet, any more episodes."

"Thank heavens, no," Hinata said. "We see her eyes flash when she feels like she's going to disappoint us or when she's worried about one of the younger girls, but that's about it."

"And I have your reports on what you've seen with the byakugan," Tsunade said, frowning. "Unfortunately, unless she has another episode and we get more information, I can't really pin it down. If I thought it was safe to provoke an episode, but where we don't know what we're dealing with…"

"Yeah," Naruto said. "And she's about as talkative about her training as always."

"I do think Mistress Tendo might have given us the primary trigger though," Tsunade said. "Something like we've been suspecting since Joseibi talked to you about her mother's way of 'counting'."

"She was threatening to attack the girls to get them to behave," Hinata said with a grimace.

"Worse," Tsunade said. "The contract Kurumi was mentioning was a seppuku contract including her son, and he'd supposedly 'signed' it with a hand print. He was too young to write yet."

There was a long, uncomfortable silence.

"Ryoko was ten when she was left here," Naruto said. "And you're basically saying that she was threatened with being forced to perform seppuku on probably a daily basis."

"And Joseibi taking her place as eldest daughter," Hinata whispered.

"Explains quite a bit, doesn't it," Tsunade said. "The ultra precise speech, the careful attention to manners and form, the skittishness, the concern for her sister."

"That woman we just met didn't seem to think their mother would do anything," Hinata said.

"We all know that dangerously unbalanced people can appear very normal," Tsunade said. "We've all been fooled ourselves in the past."

"It's amazing that Joseibi didn't end up as much of a basket case," Naruto said.

"Not so much," Tsunade said. "Can you imagine Joseibi accepting that she had to commit seppuku?"

"No," Hinata said. "She barely accepts basic chores."

"And who was primarily concerned with raising her?" the Hokage asked.

"To here Joseibi tell it, Ryoko," Naruto said. "Deliberate?"

"Possibl. It would require a degree of abstract thought children that age normally don't have. Still, they're both intelligent girls," Tsunade said. "And what you reported Joseibi said about Ryoko is pretty accurate. She can take care of people, but not herself. Though she's been getting better."

"I really hope the rest of their family isn't psychotic," Naruto said.

****

Kurumi looked at the sheet of paper before her, and frowned before turning to the bowl of soup that appeared in front of her, to the side of the five empty bowls already there. She shouldn't put off writing the letter, but, then again, she wasn't entirely sure yet what she was dealing with.

She'd already sent the basics of the situation with the Hokage's messengers, but the specifics. The specifics were really hard to narrow down.

The Wandering Master frowned deeply.

Genma and Happosai weren't supposed to take on anymore students, that was the agreement they had made for their parole. This wasn't supposed to be happening to children anymore.

Add to that, these people suspected the supposedly saintly Nodoka of being a part of this.

She sighed and checked to see how much gold she had left as she finished her soup, and then took out her calorie journal to note down how much she had eaten.

"Still a bit short for the day," she muttered as she analyzed the accounting of what she had eaten.

As the woman did that, she blinked and watched a man walk by beside a large white dog.

Another powerful fighter.

She could tell just by the way he walked.

It was funny, when she was a kid, she was the one that most often sought to avoid fighting when she could, excusing those times she was driven to attack by desperate and unreasonable hungry, and now she was the one that still wandered looking for people to test herself against.

A fight could be fun, get her geared up to handle the problem she was looking at, clear her head.

She paid for one more bowl of soup and finished it in about the same motion before standing up and following the path of the man and his dog.

****

Kuren, two of them, sat drumming their fingers irritably as she watched Jubei doing a succession of one-armed pushups. Further down, Joseibi was lying across one of the benches and sleeping.

The Uzumaki girl really wished that her friend hadn't gone ahead and done that, it was going to make such a bad impression when the jonin finally arrived. She wasn't the only one of that opinion either.

Jubei stood up and frowned at Joseibi as he apparently finished his push-ups.

"How can we be teamed with such a lazy and useless person," he asked.

As if on queue, and from what Kuren knew of the other girl, it could have been, Joseibi let loose a loud snore.

"I train every waking moment to be the absolute best I can be," Jubei repeated.

"Her sister trains her outside of class a lot," Kuren said.

"Isn't her sister that coward who jumps at her own shadow?" Jubei asked.

"Onbin-Gigei Bikou Odori," Kuren said with a trace of remembered embarrassment.

"What?" Jubei asked. "Quiet Arts Shadowing Dance?"

"That's what she calls it," Kuren said.

"'Ano…it is not quite right yet…" Joseibi, eyes still closed, mocked from her relaxation on the bench. "And hate to see what she considers 'right'."

Jubei paused and tried to equate the skittish girl he'd seen occasionally with the concept of a serious martial artist and couldn't do it.

He was still trying to do that when a large white dog pushed its way into the room, a large, doggy smile on his face. Behind the dog came a tall, lanky man with wild dark hair and red markings under his eyes and a black leather jacket. He gave them a look over with his fierce iris-less eyes and smirked as he found Joseibi.

"Akamaru," the man said, turning toward the dog. "Why don't you welcome Saotome-chan to the pack."

The loud bark brought Joseibi's eyes wide open as she realized what Akumaru was. Then she was scrambling to get up as the huge white dog pounced, paws on either side of the young genin's body and trapping her between it and the bench so that it could give her a large slobbery dog-hello before darting forward to grab the neck of her clothes and pull her up and away from the benches and deposit her at the man's feet.

"Shouldn't let your defenses down, kid," Kiba said, snickering down at the thoroughly humiliated girl.

"Are you crazy?" Joseibi demanded from her position on the ground.

"Sorry to be late, we had something at the kennels that shouldn't have been there," the man said. "I'm Kiba Inuzuka, your jonin-sensei."

Joseibi clambered to her feet and stood huffing in front of the smug looking dog-man.

"And that means you can send your dog to treat me like a fetching stick?" she demanded.

"Oh yeah," Kiba said stretching his smirk. "And he's not my dog. He's my friend. Now, take a se…"

The man paused frowning as he turned to look up toward the other entrance of the school room and the woman that appeared up there, a few years younger than him.

The woman looked down in a combination of disappoint and chagrin and slumped strangely, rolling her eyes as she started to walk out again, all eyes turning to look up at her. She paused a moment as she looked down to notice Joseibi down below.

"Excuse me, what are you doing here?" Kiba asked.

"Oh, I thought you might make a good match, but I'll wait," she said with a cheerful smile. "Not going to interrupt a meeting between master and student."

"A match?" Kiba said doubtfully. "Are you hunting for a husband or something?"

"Pfft!" the woman snorted before snickering in restrained hysteria that somewhat bruised Kiba's ego. "Hardly, I still have a few miles of dust to gather first. No, I'm here to make challenges."

Joseibi quirked her head to the side at the familiar choice of words.

Kiba smiled wide, this was more to his liking, and stepped forward, putting himself between the woman and the children.

"Well, I'm always game to a good fight," Kiba said. "But later, like you said, a meeting of a jonin and his genin is to be done privately. What's your name woman?"

"Kurumi Tendo," the woman said, directing a look down toward Joseibi and shrugging. "Wandering Master of Musabetsu Kakuto Tadashita-Ryu."

Joseibi's eyes went wide as the strange woman left the room, yawning, the phrase "there's gotta be food nearby" drifting back toward them.

Kuren blinked and moved to come stand next to her friend. Her clone stood a little back, cupping her chin thoughtfully.

"Isn't that your family style?" she asked.

Joseibi nodded, eyes narrowing in suspicion.

Jubei himself frowned and wondered

"Really," Kiba said, turning about. "Well, I'll see about that later. So back to introductions and discussions. Again, I'm Kiba Inuzuke. I'm a member of the Inuzuke clan, I'm going to be your jonin instructor. So…introduce yourselves."

"Hai, sensei," Jubei said, standing at attention. "I'm Jubei Lee, son of Rock and Sakura Lee. I will be the next genius of hard work here in Konoha."

Kiba arched an eye and nodded. All of Rock's ambition without the humility, and to Wild Jonin had to wonder just how well Sakura tolerated Jubei's all out dedication to taijutsu and ignoring any potential he had for following her path. It wasn't like he had Rock's chakra problem as an excuse.

It was gonna take some time to knock the humility into him.

"All right, pup," Kiba said, turning to Kuren.

"I'm Kuren Uzumaki," she said. "And I want to be a ninja so that I can help bring my brother back home."

Kiba nodded, being more than a little familiar with the circumstances of the Uzumaki family. Though the exact nature of the place Jiraiya Uzumaki was stuck seemed to be a question. Word was that he'd be coming home in the next couple of years though, so hopefully the Inuzuke wouldn't have to deal with full-out Uzumaki on a mission syndrome.

That brought him to Joseibi of course.

"Joseibi Saotome," the second blonde said, shrugging. "I don't really have an ambition."

"All right," Kiba said, wishing that divine justice had seen fit to stick Shikamaru with this blonde slacker, but no, it was up to him. "I'll buy that for now."

Still, Kiba smelled that she was holding something back. She wasn't lying per se, but there was a characteristic to her scent of something she wanted kept private.

He glanced back up to where that Kurumi woman had been and then back down at the three jonin.

"Okay," he said. "Here's what I want you to do to get ready for your test tomorrow."

The three genin leaned forward and blinked.

"But…we just had a test," Kuren noted, pointing to the various benches.

"Not from me you didn't," Kiba noted. "So, by tomorrow…I want you three…together…"

They leaned further forward.

"To have taken…" he continued.

"Yes?" they said in unison, one voice repeated twice over.

"A walk," he finished, sending the four toppling over…which caused Kuren's clone to vanish in a puff of smoke.

"A walk?" Joseibi demanded. "What is that supposed mean?"

"It means," Kiba said. "A walk. Now, if you'll excuse me. I think I have a date to make. Hey, Akamaru, let's go find that Kurumi chick."

The dog barked agreeably and bounded out ahead of the jonin.

"Inuzuke-baka," Joseibi called out, bringing the man's frowning face to turn and look at her.

"What's up, kit?" he asked.

"One of the prime tenants of Musabetsu Kakuto Ryu is never to go easy on an opponent," she said. "It's considered insulting."

"Really," Kiba said, frown turning into a broadening smirk. "This is sounding better all the time."

The jonin smirked as he cracked his knuckles and sauntered out of the room.

"There's got to be something more than just going for a walk together involved," Kuren said after the man had gone.

"Agreed," Jubei said. "There has to be a reason for Kiba-Sensei's instructions that we do not see."

"So…" Joseibi said. "What sort of 'walk' are we talking about? And how long?"

"Obviously," Jubei said. "Our sensei means for us to spend our time in physical conditioning."

"We could find Mom and ask her," Kuren said. "She used to be Kiba-sensei's teammate. Maybe she knows something about what he's talking about."

****

"Hey," Kiba said as he found Kurumi in the process of devastating another restaurant.

Kurumi turned around and set aside her fifth empty platter of barbeque beef. She grabbed a napkin and cleaned her face off as she regarded Kiba expectantly.

"That was a quick meeting," she said.

"Yeah," Kiba said, glancing at the pile of trays she already had to her side. "The long one's tomorrow. Hungry?"  
"Always," Kurumi said with a bit of a self-mocking smirk as she took out her calorie journal again. "Ready for that fight now? You said you had to do some training tomorrow, wouldn't want you out of shape for that."

"Oh, I wouldn't worry about me," Kiba said, revealing his teeth and cracking his knuckles. "Akamaru and I won't be the ones out of shape."

"Point me out to a fighting ground and let's get this started," Kurumi declared standing up.

"Right over there," Kiba said, pointing toward the arena in the center of town.

"Lead the way," Kurumi said.

As they walked along, they caught the attention of another person.

Biting her lip Ryoko glanced toward the academy and then the two leaving fighters. A few years previous she wouldn't have even considered what she was now thinking, especially not with instructions to follow.

Still, she couldn't ignore the opportunity to watch this supposed master fight. Especially not against one of the better known jonin of the village.

****

Kurumi whistled as she took in the arena and started walking to the center of it.

"Impressive," she said. "This is for the exams?"

"Right," Kiba said, taking a position apart from her, Akamaru beside him.

"I'm guessing the dog fights too?" Kurumi asked.

"You don't have a problem with that, do you?" the Wild Jonin asked.

"Nah, the more the merrier," the Wandering Master said, smiling as she moved to stand across from him and waited.

"Are you going to get into a stance?" Kiba asked.

"I'm ready," Kurumi said.

In the stands above, a watching paid attention carefully.

"Utsuro Kamae," she whispered. "She knows the advanced stance."

"You better hope you are," Kiba said, snickering as he dropped to the ground. "Shikyaku no jutsu."

Kurumi watched in interest as the bestial aspects of her opponent increased and then the man launched forward at her.

The Tendo woman bent aside slightly, dodging one clawed hand and pushing off another to give her some momentum as she swung an elbow into his body. The elbow was blocked and pushed aside, forcing Kurumi into a forward roll so that she could recover her balance without losing standing.

Kiba followed closely, with Akamaru moving to join the fight.

Kurumi's roll changed character as she pushed off to the side. For a moment Ryoko had to comment that the woman gave the impression of a dog rolling in the dust. Then she was up standing and turning toward her opponents a smile on her face.

"Is that it?" she asked, waving them to follow her. "I thought I'd be worked up by now."

"Haoto no Suzumebachi," Ryoko noted as the Master taunted her opponents.

"We'll see about that," Kiba said, leaping up into the air beside Akamaru.

Ryoko winced as the Wild Jonin took to the air. That's exactly what the woman wanted. She was set up now to steal the wind.

Kurumi leaped up to meet the pair, flipping around and past Akamaru's paws and teeth to grip a hold of the canine and set her feet into the dog's back to push off, killing the dog's momentum and adding to her own. Using the stolen wind, she made a launching kick toward the airborne Kiba, that sent the Inuzuke flying across the arena floor.

"This is going to be too easy," Kurumi declared. "I can't believe I got so worked up over this."

Landing on the ground, Kurumi immediately charged forward, pushing to reach Kiba before either he or Akamaru could regroup. Kiba kippuped from where he'd landed, and immediately shifted into a slanting stance and blocking her forward thrust as he did so. Taking the advantage of the contact to grab hold of her arm and try to force her into a submission hold before letting her out in the open where her speed was treated to the best advantage.

Kurumi hit the ground hard and pushed a gasp of air out of her lungs, but didn't let herself be stunned or slowed down. Twisting about the arm the man had gripped, she pushed to the point of jarring her arm out of joint before she got to a point she could jab her other hand into his arm pit and force the lock to be released.

Then it was an exchange of grips and counters as Kurumi struggled to fight her way free of the grapple and break contact with Kiba. As she finally broke her way clear, the ninja stood up and tossed a pill to the approaching Akamaru. A moment later and there seemed to be two Kiba's standing there.

As she watched, Kurumi frowned thoughtfully and reached up to grab her ribbon, releasing it with a quick, practiced tug.

Now it was a game of distance as Kiba and Akamaru pressed forward, trying to get inside Kurumi's reach and she tried to keep them at a distance while simultaneously trying to get far enough away to use her most decisive ribbon techniques.

The searing chi-filled ribbon wrapped about one of the Kibas as a second dived in and slashed downward with his claws, cutting into Kurumi's shoulder.

"Kachuu Tenshin Amaguriken!" Kurumi shouted, letting her ribbon fall free as she slammed the Kiba in front of her with such a large number of strikes that Ryoko found it difficult to count them.

The Kiba in front of her stumbled back to the ground, puffing into smoke as it was revealed to be a momentarily dazed Akamaru. Kiba himself was pulling out of the ribbon and coming back into the fight. Grimacing, Kurumi leaped back, tossing a pair of chi-filled darts forward into the ground before each of her opponents.

Kiba blinked as he looked down at the dart and watched as a flash of white chakra-light ripped spun out from the metal object just before the ground exploded outward. The dart in front of Akamaru had a similar result, filling the arena with dust and shrapnel.

Had Kurumi followed the Hibiki-Ryu, or even strict Joketsuzoku Wu Shu, she could have stood in the midst of that blast and taken advantage of the confusion. However, Musabetsu Kakuto Tadashita-Ryu predominantly dealt with speed, and the body-hardening aspects of Baksai Tenketsu were too restrictive to their mastery techniques.

Still, this gave her a little time to consider the situation. She eyed her ribbon where it had been blown by the explosion and rushed for it. As she snatched it up she backed up to start whirling the heat-filled ribbon around her like some sort of delicate fan blade set to move at sonic speeds.

Kiba recovered his feet, again, and pushed out of the cloud of dust moving to join Akamaru and renew the human-mimicry art as he watched Kurumi twirling the ribbon about her and felt the heat rising out of her position.

It was time to go for the big guns.

"Let's go, Akamaru," Kiba shouted, diving forward into the spiraling bands of heat, twirling into a spinning missile of fur or flesh.

Kurumi watched as the missiles came in, but did not move.

She wasn't going to have time to change her chi and before they reached her. She needed more time.

The Tadashita-Ryu practitioner grimaced as she started to work one mastery technique onto another.

This was going to be tiring.

The ribbon was released to fly into the air as she took a deep breath.

"Kachuu Tenshin Amaguriken Kansei!" the woman shouted as the pair she was fighting reached her.

Suddenly, to her perspective, the insanely fast twisting motion of the two was but a mild spin. Kurumi dodged aside easily, moving in a blur to those that weren't seeing like her. Still, she was going to have to hold the state too long.

It was supposed to be a full-body speed sprint. Hold it for one or two seconds and then release. At that rate, it could be repeated several times with minimal recovery required between bursts. Right now, she was pushing it past three seconds, and she could feel seven seconds in view.

Yet, she did not attack, focusing instead on two things: defense and chi focusing.

Kurumi forced herself to calm as the slowly drifting ninjas came back in. The heat of her body was forcibly pushed away, leaving only the heat of the air around. Then she focused on her body, slipping into the abridged spiral as the Konoha fighters came in again.

Kurumi hadn't completely mastered the Nashi-Rasen Hiryu Shoten Ha yet. Only Ranma had effectively managed to contain the spiral completely in his body, eliminating the need for the outer spiral, but she was the closest to reaching that accomplishment among the other Masters.

Akane and Ryuu needed the last ten steps of the spiral.

Natsume needed seven.

The Wandering Mistress needed three steps.

She could feel Kiba and his canine friend coming in as she felt her chi pass the point of control. She momentarily waited and then, as the dog and his man, came within reach, the Wandering Master slashed her chill hand upper ward through the still heated air.

"Hiryu Shoten Ha!" she called out.

Ryoko's eyes widened as the tornado ripped out from the woman, carrying Kiba and his dog up into the air.

The tornado faded, lacking the necessary chi from Kurumi for a full-powered blast, even as Kiba reached up and, as the strain of the Amaguriken Kansei and the Nashi-Rasen Hiryu caught up with Kurumi she dropped to her knees, breathing hard.

Kiba and Akamaru landed hard on either side of her, but not as hard as she hoped. Both started to struggle to their feet.

Staring across at each other as they both came up to standing, Kiba and Kurumi breathed heavily. Akamaru sat up on his haunches, but stayed there, catching his breath or biding his time, Kurumi wasn't sure.

"Good try," she said, smirking and straightening up.

"You too," he said. "That last wasn't finished, was it?"

"You kinda rushed me," she said.

"So, are we going to finish this?" Kiba asked.

"I think so," Kurumi said, smirking. "But I was starting to wonder if you'd rather talk."

Kiba snickered and came in then, Akamaru supporting him.

Kurumi rushed to meet them.

Ryoko winced as the two martial artist's met, missed each other and then stumble over and collapse, with only Akamaru conscious and standing over the pair of them.

Neither had used everything they could have used, but even with the idea of not holding back, reserves were lower when there was little at stake.

The elder Saotome leaped down to the arena floor and looked carefully at the two fighters before looking toward Akamaru and then back at the two unconscious warriors.

"Ano…"

****

Hinata and Naruto were surprised as they turned a corner in the street to see their daughter, the younger of their charges and Sakura's son. They had expected that Joseibi and Kuren would still be at the academy dealing with whatever their sensei had set up for them.

They were more surprised when the three young ninja spotted the Uzumakis and moved straight for them.

"Okaasan, we need to ask you something."

"Uzumaki-sama, we would like to ask you something of your youth."

"Hinata-san, can you tell me what Inuzuke-baka is talking about walks?"

"Hey, hey!" Naruto shouted. "One at a time. What's up?"

"It is a bit hard to follow," Hinata agreed. "When you all talk at once."

"Well," three voices started to say before Naruto straightened and crossed his arms.

"Excuse me," Kuren said, giving the other two a sharp look. "Anyway, Kiba Inuzuke is our jonin."

"Really," Hinata said, surprised. "That's curious, he hasn't said anything to me about it."

"That is besides the point, Uzumaki-sama," Jubei noted. "He gave us an instruction to prepare for tomorrow, but we are not making sense of it."

"What was the instruction?" Hinata asked.

"We're supposed to take a walk together," Joseibi said.

"'A walk'?" Naruto repeated, arching an eyebrow. "Isn't that what he calls it when he goes on a mission?"

"That's right," Hinata said.

"So we're supposed to complete a mission?" Kuren asked, confused. "What kind of mission?"

"I think there is something more basic than that," Hinata told the genin. "I would suggest heading into the training grounds and discuss it with each other."

"At the very least you can get some training done while you talk about it," Naruto noted.

"By the way, did you see your sister, Joseibi?" Hinata asked.

"Not since earlier, why?" the blonde Saotome asked.

"She was supposed to be going to see who were assigned to," Naruto said. "There's a woman in town she was probably going to tell you about."

"Kurumi Tendo?" Kuren asked, receiving a set of looks. "She came by and challenged Kiba-sensei to a duel or something. He mentioned going off to find her when he dismissed us."

"If Ryoko heard anything about that," Naruto said.

"Yep, she'd be going to watch," Joseibi noted.

"Anyway, go to the training grounds, talk about your Walk," Hinata said. "We have to head home."

****

Two letters were now in transit, one just starting it's journey and one just now finishing.

The first was carried by a messenger of Konoha and the second was just now being laid on a table in Konoha.

The second was found as day drug on to night and read by two ninja who'd waited long to see the words that the message brought them.

"We believe it is time to test your son and see if he is strong enough to survive the trip to mortal world. Should he be successful, he will be ready to make the trip in a week's time."

The first would not be read for many days yet, and would bring a message entirely unlooked for.

"I am in Konohagakure and have found something, or should I say someone. Ranma, I don't know how to break this gently. You have two sisters, and Genma has broken the parole on taking students. I'll send you another letter when I've figured out how much damage has been done."


	6. Leavetakings and Arrivals

The ninja filtered quietly around the Tendo Dojo, eager to salve their wounded pride at having three of their number drawn on a long public chase by their supposedly helpless objective and then easily beaten by a wisp of a girl barely sixteen years old.

Their mandate was to capture the Kuno child so as to force her parents into aiding their employers rather than fighting them. They didn't know precisely what the rogue elements of Mizu no Kuni had in mind, but that wasn't there problem.

Their problem was only in completing the task set before them, preferably without drawing the attention of Kirigakure. Though that last aspect of their goals was probably ruined now.

They had considered just invading the dojo with their forces and grabbing the kid, but that had quickly been put down. It was obvious they weren't dealing with some common dojo run by an ex-soldier or two. If the students had as much strength as the two children showed, they were dealing with dedicated martial artists.

There was no telling how strong the masters of such a dojo were.

Now they were regretting the hesitance.

People had been coming to the dojo for the last day.

First had been the Kunos. The reputedly insane samurai Tatewaki, who'd nevertheless been proving quite a thorn in the side of their employers, stood side-by-side with his merchant wife. Neither dressed particularly unusually, aside from the fact that Tatewaki had a fondness for traditional garb that wasn't often seen these days.

After them came three who dressed as medics and healers. A tall man with glasses and two women with varying forms of grace. One had a sort of homely grace that spoke of serenity and stability. The other's grace was more airy and chaotic. The tranquility of stillness and the tranquility of motion.

Soon there after another woman came to join the party, wearing the old uniform of the Nerima militia. Officers stripes were visible on her shoulder. She had spiky black, almost purple, hair and a slight body that she nevertheless controlled with a very physical degree of confidence.

There was a family showing that they'd been traveling on the road for some days. The husband wearing loose, camouflage pants and bandana and the wife dressed like any common farm-wife: breeches for hard work rather than a dress for social occasions. Their son, sixteen and almost a man, was dressed in similar practical, tough clothing. The woman carried what looked like a rugbeater on her back for whatever purpose, probably to use it as a weapon of some kind.

Students had been coming and going all day, seemingly unaware of what was going on. Among them were three specific teenagers, the target and her friends. A foreigner from beyond Hi no Kuni with vibrantly colored hair and a noble bearing, and a girl they assumed to be the initiate that had defeated three of them already, though she was dressed in the uniform of the local school rather than the reportedly ragged training uniform that she had fought in.

Overall, many of the lower of the wandering ninja didn't see much extraordinary in the visitors, but the leader saw more.

Aside from the Kunos, he recognized Captain Tatsuki Arisawa, and even if the Nerima militia were not active at the moment, the fact the woman came in uniform implied that would change fairly soon. Then there was her…companion, the mystic healer Orihime, supposedly capable of even bringing the dead back to life.

The Ono healers had been with Orihime, and they were well-respected for their knowledge. Tofu himself was also rumored to be a skilled warrior beyond his healing arts.

Besides that, the others, though he did not know of them by tale or sight, seemed just as dangerous, if not more so. These Tadashitaka moved with perfect efficiency while appearing to move as anybody else did. They deliberately hid their stances and rarely if ever left them.

They held a focus of determination that was rare.

It was as if he was staring at the heart of one of the Great Hidden Villages and seeing the Will of Fire, or the Power of Thunder, or any of the other terms that the great villages called it by.

None of the homeless ninja saw the last arrival.

****

Ranma frowned as he felt something or someone moving through his home. He'd left the main room, where his guests sat discussing plans and other matters, to grab some rice cakes from the pantry. Twisting about with a bare motion, his hand slashed out and stopped inches away from a familiar face.

"Konatsu," he said, relaxing.

"Ranma-sama," the male kunoichi said, catching his breath from the surprise. "Ukyou-sama sends the compliments of the Hibiki family."

"Right," the grandmaster said. "And how did she really say?"

"I believe the phrasing was," Konatsu paused. "'Get on over there an' see what Ranchan wants.'"

"Heh," Ranma noted with a smirk as he continued toward the pantry. "And how is Ucchan?"

"Very well, Ranma-sama," Konatsu noted. "Her tavern is quite successful and Ryouga's trading is also going well…if somewhat unpredictable. She does ask that I find out why you wanted to see me specifically, but given the other guests around your home, I think I can safely understand that."

"Oh," the martial artist asked as he scanned through contents of the pantry looking for dry rice cakes. "I knew they were there, too many strange faces in the street, how many of them are out there?"

"I'd say twenty or so genin," Konatsu said. "Five, six chunin. And a jonin as leader. Combined they can't compete with even one of you elder Saotome or Kumon in open battle. If you didn't know they were here already, and there were only you and Akane, I'd think it would be possible they could assassinate you in surprise, but as it is, I think even that would fail. Then, I'm guessing you have other fears and goals."

"Yeah," Ranma said as picked up a package of rice cakes and handed them to Konatsu. "Kasumi and Nabiki have a plan an' we kind of needed an ace to pull it off. When we get done with this, remind me to get your thoughts on bodyguard skills. Looks like we should start thinking about more than just upfront fighting."

"I shall certainly be glad to instruct you on what I know, Ranma-sama," Konatsu said. "But that sounds like something shinobi would be more concerned with than martial artists."

"It's somethin' family should be concerned with," Ranma noted. Then they were walking into the main room. "'Natsu's here. An' should we get some school business outta the way since all four of us are in the same place?"

"That sounds advisable," Natsume agreed, nodding.

****

The jonin watched, waiting to see what would develop, students leaving as the day wore on until only the three that were his concern remained…with all the dangerous adults within.

They were going to try something, he knew it. Given that he was dealing with martial artists and not shinobi, it was likely to be a very obvious ploy.

Then he saw it, the traveling family from out of town gave their hosts a pleasant farewell and started to leave off into the setting sun for whatever town they had started from.

Only, now, there was a change in their "son".

The "son" was dressed in obvious travel clothes and bundled up, making it hard to spot features, but for an expert observer, it was impossible not to notice the person's feminine way of holding him..or perhaps it should have been her…self.

That was their target.

Silently, he gestured about to give the order, and the shinobi drifted into the night air to begin tailing their targets.

It was hard to keep such a large number of people secret, they had to travel in small groups, pairs and otherwise, communicating by tiny radio-comms to keep track of the targets without everyone being on top of them at once and giving the warriors too much warning of what was happening.

Things were growing dark when the family left Nerima behind and started to walk into the forest beyond, heading north and east, towards the opposite coast. Now the wandering ninja started to draw their net closed. Slowly, very slowly, they started to extend their forces around and the targets began to realize they were surrounded.

That's when the order was given to attack.

As expected, the martial artists were instantly on the offensive, not allowing surprise to claim more than a few seconds from them. However, they did not expect the ferocity of the response.

The wandering ninja had encountered martial artists before, and almost universally, such single-minded warriors held back whenever they thought they were facing someone beneath them. Such was not the case here, it was obvious by their tactics and behavior that every ninja was given full respect as a warrior and threat, and something to be treated as such.

Every blow took down an opponent as the adults fought to break the circle of foes and give cover for their charge, certainly not their son, to flee on his own. Few of the ninja were being killed, which was a marker of a fight between martial artists, but they were being painfully eliminated from the fight by the second.

The jonin smiled at the success of his plan and leaped away with two of his best chunin-level ninja in support.

They had the gauge of this girl's skills and while they couldn't compete with the two masters, the jonin suspected they'd need something of S-class or Kage ability to do that, they could easily incapacitate an incompletely trained girl and carry her off before the two more dangerous opponents finished dealing with the distraction.

She was fast for a normal girl, but she was slow by ninja standards, almost seeming to even be unfocused and even holding back in her flight. She kept looking right and left, searching out threats at random, and never even latching onto the three following her so silently.

The jonin allowed her to run for three minutes, feeling even that was a stretch for his lesser followers to keep the masters busy, but it took her far enough from help that they had time to strike.

"Get rea…" the jonin started to call out before his "target" turned around a tree and didn't appear from the other side.

Three shinobi pulled up in a stop as they passed the tree cautiously, expecting to find a girl cowering on the other side.

Instead they found empty space.

The jonin frowned and grabbed his short sword, looking about cautiously.

Something had just happened that he hadn't been planning on.

"It was a trick," he said. "Watch your…"

He turned back to look at his two chunin and failed to find either one. The sword withdrew as his eyes scanned about, knowing he was already vulnerable and in over his depth.

He wasn't fighting a martial artist. The target he'd been chasing wasn't Noriko Kuno.

They had found a kunoichi somewhere to take her place.

And she was…

****

Konatsu looked down at the unconscious form of the homeless ninja's squad leader. Looking upward, he saw the tied and hanging forms of the two chunin he'd removed from action first.

Two figures appeared out of the shadows and walked forward to join him, looking on his work with a measure of respect.

"I've left them alive, as requested," Konatsu noted, "though I still say it would be safer to kill them."

"I can almost agree with you there," Ryuu said leaning down to pick up the jonin by the hair and look into his unconscious face. "I used to think that way myself, but not the way we do things anymore. Unless we have to."

"They might make it so we have to eventually, husband," Natsume noted, rugbeater returned to her back as the battle came to a close. "Still, I suppose this means that our son and the girls got out all right."

****

"Really," Noriko said with a frown. "Is this really necessary. Leaving Mizu no Kuni for some barbarian wilderness?"

Behind her, Loshun was making sure Ryouta Saotome was tucked in and sound asleep. However, at the brown-haired girl's comment, she stood up straight and looked away from the child that it would be their responsibility to take care of and help train in the coming weeks.

Noriko never seemed to quite break the habit of making poorly worded comments that implied a sense of superiority. Miyako mostly ignored the comments, knowing that it was a habit built to keep Noriko's father off her back, but Loshun had less ability to keep her patience around the Kuno girl, especially in stressful situations.

Unfortunately, Noriko was also worse in stressful situations.

She walked to the wooden wall and opened the shutters to look out over the waters toward the receding land that nightfall already made invisible.

"You are going," Loshun said in a very slow and controlled manner to prevent herself from slipping, in anger, into pidgin speak, "to my home. The great village of Joketsuzoku. This is not a barbarian wilderness."

"Oh yes," Noriko said. "I do apologize, but between here and there…"

"That is acceptable," Loshun noted, setting back against the wall.

"Okay," a loud and male voice declared as they heard footsteps walking down into the hold. "We're underway and the captain assures us that we'll be in Nami no Kuni in a few short days. And then it's just across the Great Naruto Bridge and across Hi no…"

"Yes, please yell secret location of Joketsuzoku to heavens," Loshun noted grimly.

"Don't worry," the young man said. "I am the son of Ryuu and Natsume Kumon and an Initiate of Musabetsu Kakuto Tadashita-Ryu. I would not betray any family allegiances. Especially not when they include such beautiful women."

Noriko and Loshun exchanged looks and then rolled their eyes.

"How is it, Gotei," Noriko asked. "That the son of such…plain-spoken and serious people could become such an obvious and egregious flatterer such as yourself?"

"It works in the movies," he protested in an almost whine.

"No, it does not," Loshun corrected him. "Where is Miyako?"

"She's still up on deck," Gotei said, directing a thumb upward.

On deck, Miyako stood, looking back across the bay and watching the night move in the distance.

One of those shadows had appeared in the distance just as the ship departed, and Miyako knew it was still pacing at the edge of the dock now, even though she couldn't really see it, she could feel it.

That wasn't the main gist of her staying up on deck, however, as the Wave Country sailors worked on setting out for their home port. No, her eyes may have been looking back toward Mizu no Kuni and Nerima, but her mind was looking ahead toward the trials that were to come.

At her side was a bokken, the preferred weapon of swordcraft of her school, but she wished for it to be something else beside.

They weren't facing hollows, the local shinigami had confirmed her suspicion about that. These shadows were something else, something new…or maybe something very old. Still, she would have felt much more comfortable with a zanpakuto such as her parents wielded rather than a simple wooden sword that she had only barely learned how to fill with chi.

She had not completed training in the initiate disciplines yet, not counting those that she had been told she wouldn't be able to master until after she'd become a disciple and learned the techniques there. She had earned red bracers, two colors away from the highest initiate rank.

There was more practice to be done on Kakeru Umareta, most of the other initiates near her rank could almost dance around her in the air. Her Tenma Atama was weak at best, barely able to scare a nervous duck.

By the time she reached Joketsuzoku, perhaps she could do something to correct that. That was near the Musk as well, and Kodachi was supposed to be an accomplished disciple, allowed to teach initiates and lesser ranks.

Despite all that, she was confident in friends and her heritage and herself.

This was her quest, and though it seemed small and personal now, she knew it might not stay that way.

She glanced back over her shoulder to see the dramatically uncertain form of Noriko Kuno making a show of working her way up the rocking ship to where Miyako stood.

"At least it is a lovely night," Noriko stated as she came up beside Miyako, obviously hedging around something.

"Yeah," Miyako said. "Do you need something, Noriko?"

In the dark night, Miyako could barely tell the slight flush that worked over her friends face, before Noriko turned suddenly to wrap her arms around Miyako and hold on firmly. Surprised, and looking about to see if any of the sailors noted or cared, the young Kurosaki patted Noriko on the back comfortingly as the Kuno girl quietly sobbed into her shoulder.

"Hey, we're not going to let anything happen to you, Nori-chan," Miyako said clumsily, still looking to see if anybody was watching the little scene, and feeling horrible about the fact that she considered that a concern.

"But my parents…" Noriko said quietly.

"They'll be fine too," Miyako promised and then, sensing something of what was Noriko's main problem, she added. "And in the meantime, you can train with Loshun, Gotei and me. By the time we get back home, all of us will be ready for disciple."

"You think so?" Noriko asked, looking up at Miyako.

"I know so," Miyako said firmly.

As she said so, Miyako noticed one of the Wave sailors looking up at her and Noriko, a particular leering expression on his face.

"Excuse me," the Kurosaki martial artist said, black and orange hair shaking back in front of her face. "I'm comforting a distraught friend in a traditionally girly and touchy-feely manner, so please, take your yuri-filled imagination and go off by yourself and give us some privacy before I respond with an unnecessarily violent method, also very traditional."

Blanching, the sailor took his work elsewhere under the unholy combination of Rukia-sarcasm and an Ichigo-glare projected outward from Miyako.

Meanwhile, where she was still hugging Miyako, Noriko was blinking and trying to recover something of the previously touching mood. At least she felt a little better…if suddenly a bit embarrassed.

"Noriko, you're holding me kinda tight," Miyako noted.

There was no way that Noriko was going to let Miyako see just how embarrassed she was. Nope, she'd go to sleep like this first.

Heck, she'd die in this position before letting Miyako, or anyone else, see the currently bright red shade of her skin.

"Noriko..." Miyako said, getting a bit more desperate herself. "I'm sort of ticklish there."

****

"Do you see it," Orihime asked quietly as she looked toward the dock from the building she sat behind.

"I do, Orihime-chan," Tatsuki said. "Definitely not a hollow. It looks like a piece of the night."

"It can't seem to go out over the water," the white-robed healer said. "It's a good thing we sent the children right to the docks. Kids can be afraid of the dark you know."

Tatsuki blinked and turned about to look at Orihime with that last comment and decided not to bring it up. Orihime was still…random at times.

"Okay, I don't think it's seen us," Tatsuki said. "And I can feel everyone else in position."

Orihime looked about and nodded, smiling as she noted Chad and Ishida stepping into position across from each other. They had no shinigami support, as they were not facing hollows, but none of them felt they needed it.

Just looking below at the slice of shadow made Orihime feel squirrely. It wasn't really dark, not really. That was just how everyone was viewing it. It didn't have such a place in the natural order of things as light or dark.

It should not have been.

Which was bizarre.

She'd rarely thought that particular thought about anything. Even things she felt were distasteful, such as hollows, were still a part of the way things were. It was like the thing took everything she felt was right and deliberately set itself as the opposite, just to push her towards that particular thought.

The concept gave her a shiver.

As Orihime was processing this, Tatsuki dashed out of cover and charged across the grounds of the harbor. Ahead of her she watched as a stream of spirit arrows rained through the shadow form followed by a blast from Chad, all intended to soften it up before she reached it.

Tsubaki slashed through the creature just ahead of Tatsuki and then came her.

Captain Arisawa had lagged behind the others in development of spiritual energy, and when her powers developed fully, they weren't the flashy obvious abilities of the others. She was still limited to fighting in close range with enemies, but, within that limit, she had perhaps the most potential for causing damage.

When she wanted it, and focused her energy into her flesh, her very touch tore apart spiritual matter. She could control it to a degree, ranging from temporarily destroying the chakra or chi of living opponents to being able to shear apart ghosts on merest contact.

Hands glowing with spiritual energy, the one-time second-strongest woman in Mizu no Kuni descended on the shadowy presence and…

…passed straight through it.

She twisted about, eyes narrowed and slashed a glowing kick through the dark presence, which, despite the fact that she could see no features on the creature to even identify a head, she just knew was smiling at her.

The kick did no more than her charging punch had.

As the others came out to surround the dark presence, only to see it fade away.

No words or sound were made, but they could still feel the essence of laughter tracing through the air around them as the darkness vanished.

"What the hell was that," Tatsuki demanded.

No one had much of an answer.

"I…I don't think it was really here," Orihime said. "Just sort of half-way here. No..not even half way."

"We know it's a spirit," Ishida said.

"I think she means it wasn't really in either world," Chad said grimly. "Or any that we know of."

"It's like it's just…thinking at us," Orihime said.

"How do we fight a thought," Tatsuki asked, frowning. "Let's go see if the Tadashita-ka have taken care of their shinobi problem."

****

As the report came trickling in as to the results of the move on the Kuno child, a man, one Takeda Jinto, frowned deeply bitterly. That move exposed one of his more effective pawns in his game.

What's more, he heard that Kirikagure would be sending investigators as well, at the request of, again the Kuno family. This was happening earlier than he wanted. It was, in fact, happening earlier than he feared.

All because he had dismissed a small samurai family of ridiculed reputation.

The daimyo of Mizu no Kuni had an effective pawn in the form of that family.

Jinto frowned deeper.

Pawns shouldn't move on their own.

It would take some time, but eventually, the Kunos and Kirikagure's shinobi would trace the hiring of these wandering ninja to a particular merchant. A merchant in whom he had indirectly nurtured ambition to the point that the man had, as expected, started to destabilize the country for his own selfish goals and profits.

Jinto had expected the man to get much further in his plans, but then he had stumbled upon Nerima and started to interfere in samurai of Tatewaki Kuno's acquaintance and merchants within Nabiki Kuno's employ.

His mouth twitched.

From his position sitting outside the affairs of most things, he was well aware that a woman was every bit as capable and dangerous as a man, but he hadn't expected one to so effectively worm her way through the mostly male-centric Mizu no Kuni as Nabiki Kuno had done.

And she was quiet about it.

If he had known what he did now back when he started this campaign, he'd have made his first overtures toward the Kunos.

Now it was too late, the Kunos had firmly set themselves in the daimyo's corner. Too use them he would have to direct them from a far, and even that would be dangerous. They were aware there was a chess game in play now, and they would be watching for moves.

In the mean time, he had to quietly sever the link between him and this foolish and infantile attack that had so completely been botched.

This was why pawns shouldn't move on their own.

****

Several days later, Nabiki frowned as she walked down the street.

She was annoyed for two reasons.

The first was that Tatewaki's concern for her was becoming apparent. In addition to contacting Kirikagure about investigating this conspiracy, he'd apparently hired a bodyguard detail. She looked back over her shoulder at the sharkish swordswoman and her mouth twitched.

The odd-looking girl was friendly enough, but her presence was just so obvious.

That was the intention of course.

Nabiki knew there were three bodyguards. The one behind her was the one that was supposed to be seen. She looked impressive, what with the sabre at her side and her obvious bloodline, and had a hard time fitting in given her appearance. However, Nabiki noted that of the bodyguards she'd seen, this shark-girl was the only one carrying a medical kit.

That made her the medic of the bunch, odd as that might seem.

The other three…she'd only seen two of them well enough to recognize them, and hadn't seen either of them since then.

"When did my husband go behind my back to have me babysat," Nabiki asked the shinobi behind her.

"Hard to say, Kuno-san," the shark-girl said.

The voice was young. Nabiki knew that twelve was essentially adult for shinobi, but the teenager behind her, inhuman seeming or no, was driving that nail somewhat home. The other two she'd seen were younger.

"How old are you, Kuwiko, you said your name was?" Nabiki asked.

"I'm seventeen, Kuno-san," she answered. "Do you consider that too young to be a shinobi?"

"I know better than that," Nabiki said as they eyed the Tendo Dojo coming up and she repeated quietly. "Not everyone can afford a childhood."

"Was your youth…troubled," Kuwiko asked.

"Not me so much," Nabiki said. "But most of my friends…"

She left it hanging.

The merchant really didn't like hiding behind children, no matter how strong. The mother in her cried out against it.

Nabiki pushed it aside, theirs was not her culture and she had no place to comment on it. Especially not since, in between wondering about the children that were her bodyguard, she was recriminating herself for letting Noriko grow up with the luxury of a childhood and come out too soft to defend herself.

She hadn't challenged Noriko, mentally, emotionally or physically. And the result was that her child was ill-prepared for the service that was laid on her by being born samurai.

In any case, that was all part and parcel of the first reason she was annoyed.

The second reason was the news the other Kirikagure shinobi had brought.

Stopping at the gate, Nabiki reached up and pulled the loop on the bell.

"One moment, one moment," she heard Akane calling out as the woman stepped out into the courtyard.

Her sister stopped in a bit of confusion as she saw Nabiki at the gate, but continued on again toward the gate.

"Nabiki?" Akane said shaking her hand. "What are you doing just standing there? This is your family home as much as it is mine."

"I'm not here alone, Imouto-chan," Nabiki explained as Akane came to an angle to notice Kuwiko behind her. "Tachi-chan decided I needed a bodyguard. Kuwiko, Akane Saotome, my sister."

"Oh, I see," Akane said. "Welcome to our home, I'm sorry we don't have much to the taste of the same-jin on hand for refreshment."

"That's fine, Saotome-sama," the shark girl said, with a slight bow.

"Sensei is more appropriate," Akane said encouragingly, waving the two to come in to the compound. "Actually, we could use a medic just about now. I was about to send for Tofu-sensei or Yuzu-sensei."

"Is someone hurt?" Kuwiko asked, plainly worried about such a thing.

"One of the students is having a migraine," Akane said, in correction. "Nothing serious, but we'd like it if he were able to walk out of here on his own."

"I'm afraid I have to stay with Kuno-sama," Kuwiko noted.

"I'm sure your friends can watch her well enough," Akane said, nodding generally towards the street.

"Hai, Saotome-Sa…Sensei," Kuwiko said flushing in surprise as she hurried along toward the dojo where Akane had indicated.

"Something going on, Akane?" Nabiki asked, noting through that Akane's normal enthusiasm was a bit dulled.

It might have been worry about Ryouta and the other children, but there was no harm in asking, and plenty of harm in not paying attention to the feelings.

"We have visitors as well," Akane said simply. "Ranma is talking to them in the main building."

"Just Ranma," Nabiki asked, a bit surprised. Usually Akane and Ranma handled visitors and assorted family business together.

"I have students," Akane said firmly as if that settled things. "It's groundfighting practice today. Ranma's good at that, but he knows I teach it better."

"Yes, and we all know just how you taught him 'groundfighting'," Nabiki said with a smirk.

"Nabiki!" Akane said with a scandalized flush. "What brings you here anyway, something going on?"

"We hit a dead end," Nabiki said. "The man who hired the ninja that were after Noriko is dead and buried."

Akane turned to her sister and frowned at that.

"That's convenient," she said.

"Isn't it?" Nabiki asked. "It looks like a disease of some kind, but something is nagging at me. In any case, we think he had other underlings, so we're still digging out the rot. Who are your visitors?"

"In there, you know where," Akane said, pointing in through the door. "I have to see about my students."

"Right," Nabiki said, walking in through the door as Akane followed the path taken by Kuwiko earlier toward the dojo.

Stepping in through the doorway, Nabiki saw Ranma sitting across from, surprisingly, another ninja. The headband showed a different sigil, a sort of leaf shape. That made them Konoha ninja.

He was older at least, about Ranma's age actually, or hers, indicating a higher rank than the Kirikagure that had come with her, and his eyes were pale and seemed to have no pupils.

They'd come a long way to find Ranma.

Lots of ninja around these days.

Nabiki's eyes went from the visitor, of more curiosity and interest to her than the common image of her brother-in-law, to Ranma and stopped as she took in his posture fully.

Ranma was slumped on the ground across from the kneeling visitor, clutching a note in his hand. She could see the hand shaking in rage even as he restrained himself from destroying the small piece of paper utterly.

"Saotome," Nabiki said cautiously as she moved around to catch sight of his face. "Is…is it…Ryouta…?"

"No," Ranma said, his facing showing nothing but shock and disbelief. "It's something else."

Nabiki couldn't help it, she breathed a sigh of relief. If the news wasn't about their children, then Noriko was likely still safe.

"Nabiki Kuno, this is Neji Hyuuga," Ranma said emotionlessly as he stood up. "His boss is lookin' for character references for Kurumi, can you tell him what you know. Nabiki comes from the family Kurumi is adopted into. I have to go speak to Akane."

"Thank you, Saotome-sensei," Neji said as he turned his attention to Nabiki, after a brief nod toward what Nabiki assumed were her bodyguard's hiding places. "What can you tell me about your sister, Kuno-san?"

Nabiki watched as Ranma strode purposefully toward the dojo, and then turned to face the ninja in front of her. Some secret part of her dreaded that this might have been another attack on her, a way to get her alone with a stranger, but that was just the trace of panic that lay in all fear. Her instincts told her otherwise.

"What do I know about Kurumi?" Nabiki asked. "Don't offer to pay for her lunch. Other than that, very nice girl."

"And what do you know of Genma Saotome?" Neji asked.

"That explains Ranma's foul mood," Nabiki said. "He's Ranma's father, probably one of the most contemptible men I've ever met. What's he done now?"

Ranma held Kurumi's letter in his hand as he made the short trip into the dojo. Akane stood back as the kirikagure medic nin was treating the migraine inflicted student with a selection of acupuncture needles. She noted Ranma coming in and immediately saw his distress as she crossed to him.

"What's wrong," she asked quietly.

In answer, Ranma handed over, hand still shaking, the letter that had been brought by the Konoha jonin in their home. Eyes narrowed, Akane spread out the note so that she could read the writing within.

As she read the short note, her breath came short and her eyebrows furrowed down angrily.

"Genma," she growled quietly. "Sisters? Why didn't Nodoka say anything?"

"I don't know," Ranma said. "Maybe she doesn't know."

"Yeah, I could see Genma cheating on Mom," Ranma said dully. "Maybe. Anyway…"

"Right," Akane said, she walked away from her husband to move toward one of the senior initiates and then to the Kirikagure medic.

As soon as she was done there, she walked back to Ranma, mouth firm.

"Want to do this with just the two of us?" Akane asked.

"Ryuu and Natsume are half-way home by now," Ranma said. "If we wait, he slips, you know that as well as I do."

"Right," Akane said.

Both, martial artists walked into the main building, past where Nabiki was speaking to the Konoha shinobi, and to the wall where hung two large decorative rolls of cloth were affixed to the walls beside two long sections of rope. Nabiki blinked as the two martial artists started taking down the cloth and rope, and paled as she realized what they were getting ready to do.

"What's going on, guys," Nabiki asked, looking between the two.

"We're going to be gone for a bit," Ranma said. "We have to go talk to Oyaji about a promise."

"A promise," Nabiki said, flabbergasted. "He broke the promise?"

She looked down toward Neji, who sat looking a bit emotionless.

"Perhaps I should go with you," he said. "We have a stake in this."

"No offense," Akane said as she handed Nabiki a piece of crumpled paper. "But he'll hear you coming."

"And he won't hear the two of you?" Neji asked, frowning.

"Right," Ranma said, frowning.

Ranma and Akane each twirled their cloth and both vanished, presence entirely erased. Even as Neji reflexively activated his byakugan, he could catch but faint glimmers of their presence and nothing more.

"What happened?" he demanded.

"Genma made a big mistake," Nabiki explained simply, in shock herself as she looked over the paper in her hand and began to realize what was going on.

****

Genma sat in the porch of his home, wishing he had Soun there to play shogi against rather than having to drink his sake alone with nothing much to pass his time. He couldn't even go to his wife.

In the six years since he had lost their daughters, she had only been minimally civil to him. Just enough so that others would think they were still happily married.

A bad-feeling was working into his bones, and he was beginning to feel like it was time to go on a training trip. Some part of him wanted to leave right then, right there, but he had gotten slow to trust his instincts.

He took a swig of his sake again and stood up to turn his head toward the ghost of a sound that he thought he might have heard. For about a tenth of a second he had an image of Akane's face, and then the sake bottle in his hand exploded as the kick slammed through where he had been standing.

Akane stood there in front of him for a moment, fury etched on her face as she pressed the attack. Frantically at first and then more confidently, he blocked her barrage of punches and kicks, avoiding the grappling hands that were no exit for him.

He was fighting with his daughter-in-law only a few seconds before a strike from behind sent him rolling forward, end over end. When he came to, neither Akane nor Ranma was visible, but he knew they were both there, and if they were attacking him without warning there was only one reason.

They'd found out about the girls.

He couldn't find umisenken by his senses, not by a long shot. Especially not to the degree that Akane and Ranma had perfected it.

Frowning, he tried to reach for his own star cloth, always on his person, and found it ripped from his hands even before he could lay a firm grasp on it, and then it was his son he found before him, holding both cloths. Twisting Genma's cloth in his hand Ranma whipped it out like a whipping forcing Genma to dodge aside and set him off balance for the kick that followed.

Sent rolling again, he came up lashing out with the yamasenken, sending a cascade of vacuum blades in every direction. Akane and Ranma flickered into view as they dodged the attacks, but found their star cloths destroyed and useless.

Without the cloth to hold, however temporarily, all the chi of their presence, they couldn't completely vanish, but that mattered little, since they'd deprived Genma of the same.

Also while their mastery of the yamasenken was not that of the Kumons, they still had it perfected, and the yamasenken needed no object to be performed.

Vacuum blade met vacuum blade and shattered in small explosions as Ranma and Akane covered each other's advance on the aging martial artist.

Genma dodged aside as Akane came in with a sweep to force him up where Ranma slashed through with a leaping kick. The combined attack proved to be a feint in and of itself as Akane slipped through Genma's legs and came up behind him, hands slamming into the martial artist's vital points in a perfect Haku Dato Shin Sho.

Stunned, Genma was in no position to resist Ranma's Moko Kaimon Ha. A blow that sent him spiraling through the wall of his house out into the yard.

They were trying to take him alive, and that was the only thing that was keeping the fight from being completely hopeless.

Even so, they were both on him again as he struggled to his feet, trying to command his body to the action it should have still been capable of. Cursing his age when he should have more cursed the recently sampled sake, Genma was barely on his feet when the rope twirled around him in a Kinshi Kinbaku Sho that Akane quickly adapted for use with the Rigyo Honshin, using the rope as the lever for her flip rather than the normal star-cloth.

Even knowing, as Akane flipped over his head, that her legs were going to ram into his lower back and bend him double, he could do nothing to prevent the follow-up Haizan Tokai Tai. That left him in complete submission, as Ranma slammed his outstretched fingers into Genma's solar plexus, a flawless Geimon Tessen Shi.

As Genma finally blacked out from the barrage, his thoughts lingered only on the thought that he had never thought for the yamasenken and umisenken to be blended together so flawlessly. The chi and emotions connected to each style were so totally opposite, how could they be mixed?

"What is the meaning of this," Nodoka's voice came clear and solid as she walked into view at the hole in her house's wall. "Who dares to at…Ranma, Akane, what is happening here? What are you doing to your father."

"He broke his parole," Ranma said grimly. "He trained…someone."

Akane looked up from where she was finishing tying up Genma and frowned as she looked toward Ranma, giving the silent message that they couldn't keep these things secret.

"Apparently," Akane said. "Ranma has sisters."

"Yes," Nodoka noted. "I know that."

"What?" Ranma said, standing up. "You knew?"

"Of course I did," Nodoka said. "They're my daughters as well."

"Where have they been in the six years you've lived here?" Ranma asked.

"I assume, since you have heard of them," Nodoka said. "That you know more about that than I do."

"Why didn't you tell us," Akane wondered, flabbergasted. "We could have gone to get them ages ago. We could have made sure none of this happened."

"Well, yes," Nodoka said. "I suppose so, but Genma felt you might not feel comfortable with them."

"What?" Ranma said, stepping forward not making sense of that statement.

"At the time, Ryouta hadn't been born," Nodoka said. "And it was suggested that you might feel we were trying to replace you as heir to the clan."

"What the hell do I care about that?" Ranma demanded. "If I have sisters, I want to know it."

"I did suggest you might feel that way," Nodoka said, tsking in regret.

"And after Ryouta was born," Akane insisted. "And in the last six years you've lived here without them?"

"I'd been told they'd been taken in by trustworthy people," Nodoka suggested. "And it still wasn't decided that you should be told."

Akane sneered in disgust as she looked back at where Ranma was already picking up Genma's unconscious form.

"We'll be by to fix the house with some student's later, Auntie Saotome," Akane said, shaking her head.

Then both younger martial artists took off for the Tendo Dojo.

Nodoka watched them leave and frowned as she considered the circumstances. It was so irritating to have to correct the facts in such a manner on the fly, but she had no desire for some flawed concept of events to tarnish the glory and honor she'd assured herself with Ranma's success.

Hopefully, this would be the end of the situation.


	7. Master and Student

A few months before Kurumi showed up at the gates of Konoha to the surprising discovery of new Saotome heirs, shortly after one Jiraiya Uzumaki had taken part in the defense of the Seireitei against a small, if surprising, incursion of Hollows.

Realistically, the shinigami would have expected him capable only of delaying a Hollow, not finishing it off. Though Jiraiya would hardly be the first individual to spontaneously develop a spiritual pressure capable of handling Hollows.

Still, it seemed…unusual.

"He has summoned a weapon of his own," Mayuri noted. "But not a zanpakto as we know it. This is very interesting."

"We have taken a promise of honor to return this boy to his home," Unohana noted calmly, but forbiddingly.

"I will do nothing to risk our reputations," Mayuri said with a slippery smile that twisted the last word. The reputation of the Seireitei had a lot of reputation problems given the past few thousand years. "Especially not over such a mundane ability as that. If I were as lacking in common sense as you seem to think, our human allies in Mizu no Kuni would already have disappeared into my laboratory. Unless you think this whelp's abilities are anything as unique and interesting as Inoue's healing prowess."

"What exactly is the weapon?" Byakuya asked morosely.

"It appears to be chakra," Soi Fon noted. "However, it remains tied to him in the manner of our zanpakto. An extension of his being."

"Chakra is produced by a human body and soul," Unohana noted. "Without it, they would die, but it is not a constant extension the way reiatsu is. How has he accomplished this feat?"

"It is uncertain how he achieved this given the limits of chakra," Soifon explained politically.

She didn't want to say what she and the Kurosakis had agreed upon about the kunai.

"There is one thing that is certain," the Captain-General said, attracting all attention toward him. "It is time to prepare the boy for the return to his own world."

Soifon uncharacteristically flinched, if only slightly, at the proclamation.

"I…" she hesitated as if in consideration, "shall have to make an examination."

"Your high standards are to be commended," the General commented. "But if the boy is strong enough to make the trip regardless of unexpected troubles, then it is time we completed our promise to his parents. You shall have some time to discuss the specific of the trip and its dangers. But then we will be expecting him to see how he performs and we shall make the final recommendation."

"I shall endeavor to see that he is ready," Soifon noted, bowing from her waist where she sat.

"Then we are concluded on this issue," the Captain noted, insisting that they move on to other tasks.

Soi Fon listened quietly, mechanically taking down notes as she did so, but her mind wandered backwards in time as the meeting continued.

****

"Let us see what you are capable of," Soi Fon said to her new student as she looked at him standing before her.

"Isn't that what we just did?" he asked.

"That was me testing your battlefield awareness and tactical ability," Soi Fon noted. "I still need to have a categorical understanding of what you understand."

Jiraiya shuffled about on his feet hesitantly.

"What do you want me to do?" he asked.

"You are a student of your academy, are you not?" Soi Fon asked.

"Yeah," Jiraiya noted. "So."

"So," Soi Fon noted. "What techniques must be known before you graduate?"

"You need to have eight techniques to graduate," Jiraiya explained easily, there wasn't much of a secret to that requirement.

"How many do you know?" she asked the ten year old before her.

He hesitated to reveal to her just what he knew.

"If I am to be your teacher," Soi Fon noted. "Then I must have a firm and detailed account of your every skill. Trust me, boy, there are at least a dozen Konoha ninja among the shinigami as it is, your academy's basic techniques are not unknown and I doubt you have any of the techniques that we are not aware of, so if you will stop prevaricating…"

As Jiraiya listened to Soi Fon lecture, he glanced around the room and noted a tastefully framed picture behind the severe woman's desk. Damn it, if either Mom or Dad even heard about him doing this…

Well, he'd just blame it on Konohamaru-sensei.

"Sexy no Jutsu," he called out twisting through the signs.

"Sexy no…." Soi Fon stopped in mid inquisition as the human boy in front of her was suddenly replaced by a tall, dark-skinned woman wearing little beyond strategically placed smoke clouds.

Rukia watched with a snicker as her husband turned beat red and looked sharply away as Soi Fon merely stared, mouth still open in interrupted commentary. Her expressionless face blinked twice before a trickle of blood worked down from her nose.

Afterward, she turned about, face flushing brightly as she did so.

"You might want to turn that off, Jiraiya-kun," Rukia said, snickering.

There was a popping sound and the fake-Yoruichi was replaced again with Jiraiya.

"I thought that worked on all adults," he said, scratching his head a bit in confusion.

"Only about half of us," Rukia snickered at the expense of the other two people in the room.

"I think we shall continue this without further witness," Soi Fon said grimly. "Apparently there is a corrupting influence already working on my prospective student."

"We'll be heading out then," Ichigo said, rolling his eyes. "And the corrupting influence will be coming with me."

The tall, red-haired reaper stood up.

"Corrupting influence?" Rukia quoted. "How little you both think of me….wait…wait! There's gotta be a few more amusing points for me to watch, stop dragging me off you oversized strawberry."

Soi-Fon turned around to watch the small woman be dragged off by her husband and shook her head.

Truly Rukia was the incarnation of social torture at times.

If Ichigo weren't capable of being such an ogre at times himself, she'd wonder how the man could put up with her.

"Now, let us continue," Soi Fon said, turning toward her new student.

****

Chakra.

Her student already had well-developed chakra coils.

This was problematic, though not an impossible obstacle. She couldn't teach him any techniques for forging reiatsu, the chakra wouldn't allow it.

It would be like trying to forge a sword out of water.

Thankfully, there was documentation on chakra that she could use to help teach her student.

It would probably be best not to bring up the differences between chakra and reiatsu. She didn't want to cloud the issue with things that were unconcerned with their goals.

"We shall begin with hakuda," Soi Fon noted.

"What's that?" Jiraiya asked as he caught his breath.

"Hand to hand fighting, unarmed," she clarified.

"You mean taijutsu?" he asked.

"If that is your word for it," Soi Fon noted. "Perhaps."

"Can I get a chance to catch my breath?" Jiraiya asked.

Soi Fon stared at him grimly.

"Yeah, doesn't work back home either," Jiraiya responded quietly.

Starting with hakuda made the most sense. The anatomy of a shinigami was identical in make-up to the anatomy of a human, with the primary difference being that shinigami were predominantly formed of spirit matter rather than physical matter.

In any case, the similar anatomy meant that she could teach Jiraiya the shinigami arts without worrying about the differences between chakra and reiryoku just yet. When she had the scrolls she needed to teach him about his byakugan and various chakra arts, she hoped to already have him as an expert.

Eventually, she'd teach him shunpo.

If it was possible with chakra.

****

Time passed and training came.

Two shinigami stopped cautiously outside the walls of the 2nd divisions offices. Quietly, they looked around from under the shade of a tree, extending their senses outward, but comfortingly finding no real trace of spiritual pressure in the area. There was a sort of residual trace of energy, but it was too mutable and fluctuating, had to be something merely environmental.

The taller one, an attractive woman with dark hair, glanced down at her partner, a somewhat average looking young man built somewhat stoutly and wearing the clothing of an academy cadet, and smirked superiorly.

"Okay, give me the scroll," she said.

"Here it is, Nisha-sama," the young man said, handing over a tightly rolled parchment to the woman.

"Took you long enough to get back with these, I had to stay out of sight for five days," the woman said accusingly.

"I'm sorry, Nisha-sama," the cadet said apologetically. "The academy postponed the trip two days."

"Sounds like an excuse to me," Nisha responded with a snort. "All the information on here, Jeiku?"

"Yes," the shinigami prospect said. "Everything's there. Lists of humans who've developed high reiryoku in the area, locations for two jibaku-plus spirits, areas with residual Hollow taints and the assigned shinigami's activities at the time."

"Excellent," Nisha said smiling as she looked over the scroll.

"Is there anything else?" the young man asked nervously.

"Not at the moment, Jeiku," the woman said. "But keep this up and I'll keep people from learning all about your family."

"Thank you, Nisha-sama," the young man said, bowing and smiling in relief.

"Okay," she said. "Back to class."

"Right," the young man said, turning and racing quickly down the streets, heading for the academy.

"Okay, just need to make sure to show a little cleavage. Between that and more information like this, and Lesbo-taicho will give me a seat for sure," she said, snickering.

The woman was still snickering as she sauntered away from her quiet meeting with the cadet. And she failed to note the small, purple-haired figure stick his head out from the mass of leaves in the tree that had been above the two shinigami.

Letting himself drop down and considering what he'd just heard thoughtfully, Jiraiya watched as the ambitious shinigami woman took a less direct route to the office. She was probably going to go check her appearance out before going to see Soi Fon.

Rocking back on his heels for a moment, Jiraiya looked back toward the cadet that had handed the information over and frowned.

This was like a genin trying to use an academy student to do her missions.

That was something that Jiraiya, as a shinobi, considered more than a little insulting.

"No way, anybody's getting away with that," he said, firmly.

A very strong part of him wanted to chase after the woman and beat her down, but that was his Uzumaki recklessness talking, and both his parents had cautioned him to think things through first. And the first thing that needed to be done was tell the local Kage what was going on.

Looking directly toward his sensei's office, he leaped away.

It took less than a minute to get to the shinigami captain's office and push his way inside.

Soi Fon arched an eyebrow as she looked up momentarily from her reports.

"You're supposed to be heading to the Kurosaki's," she said, looking back down. "Our training session is over for the day."

"I…uh, know," Jiraiya said. "But I heard something on the way out."

Soi Fon paused in her reading and looked up.

"Something?"

****

Nisha walked into Soi-Fon's office, after a significant delay from Omaeda-fukutaicho outside the front door. After a good deal of time growing irritated with the flamboyant man's ogling of her near-exposed goods.

She wasn't paying much attention as she walked into the middle of the room, past the leader of the Detention Unit, and turned to bow before Soi Fon in an appropriately presentable fashion.

Nisha was therefore very irritated to find that Soi Fon hadn't even blinked at her through the whole thing.

"Soi Fon-taicho," she said, still confident. "I have brought the status report on the living realm region in question."

The third seat moved to her side to pick up the scroll in question, much again to Nisha's disappointment, and then carried the scroll to Soi Fon, who took it and glanced at it casually before setting it on the table and looking up toward Nisha, finally.

"One of the key skills required for Onmitsukido," Soi Fon noted. "Is the recognition of one situations are out of the ordinary. In this skill, you have just proven to be dangerously lacking."

"Taicho…" Nisha said, uncertain just what her superior meant by that.

"I do not often have my lieutenant and 3rd seat present to hero the reports of a common scouting assignment," Soi Fon noted. "And you have not yet looked to the back of the room."

The cold speech accompanied a simple gesture toward the back of the room which drew Nisha to find a very nervous Jeiku sitting in a chair at the back of the room.

Wincing, the position seeking woman turned about to look back toward her superior.

"Taicho, you can't take the word of this boy," Nisha insisted. "Do you know who he is related to?"

"He is the nephew of Hiyori Sarugaki," Soi Fon said simply to the shocked and dismayed expressions of both Jeiku and Nisha.

"You…knew," Jeiku asked, uncertainly.

"Really," Soifon said irritably. "I prepared the reports on all the vizoreds during the time of their initial defection under Yoruichi-Taicho. But the family ties of a cadet are not what interest me here." She could have added that Ichigo Kurosaki was also vizored trained, but that was classified at the moment.

The 3rd seat moved a chair over to Nisha and forcibly sat her down.

"You've been neglecting your duties," Soi Fon noted. "Instead of attending to your own scouting missions, you've been blackmailing this cadet into attending them for you during his class's outings into the living world. Some of these outings have proven dangerous, as cadet Jeiku's medical records imply. Putting at risk an incompletely trained cadet that appears to have some potential."

"At the same time," Soi Fon continued. "You've been 'hiding' in a rukongai hot springs during the times of your supposed missions. The fact that you've managed to keep these practices secret implies either some skill on your part or else complacency on the part of myself and my officers. Given your failure to note even the ample clues placed before you of my intent for this meeting, I have to say that the error lies with us."

She came around the desk and crossed quietly to the woman, hands crossed before her.

"And the most insulting fact?" Soi Fon asked. "This information was discovered not fifty meters from where we stand and yet I still had time to collect this information and organize this meeting because you were spending time trying to appeal to my gender preferences."

There was a disgusted sneer as Soi Fon looked to the woman's artfully exposed cleavage and up to her face.

"But…" she tried to speak.

"You're dismissed," Soi Fon said simply as she turned to her 3rd seat. "Please escort her to her new accommodations until we can decide upon a proper punishment for this."

With that said, Nisha found herself roughly hauled out of the chair and out of the door. A gesture from Soi Fon dismissed Omaeda.

Jeiku swallowed as he watched her escorted out bodily and Soi Fon returned to her desk to start going over the report. It was some minutes before she spoke again.

"This is an extensively detailed report," she commented.

"Ummm…"

Soi Fon remained quiet as she continued reading the scroll.

"Soi Fon-Taicho," Jeiku said after another five minutes of silence.

"Why haven't you gone back to the academy yet?" Soi Fon said without looking up.

"Hai…" Jeiku said quickly leaving the room as quickly as he could without being impolite.

It was several more moments of silence before Soi Fon spoke again.

"You may come out now," she said.

A wooden panel slipped out of place from the roof, letting a purple-haired shinobi trainee drop down to the floor.

"You did well, student," she said, looking up toward him. "It seems I shall be getting some return on this arrangement earlier than expected."

"Thank you, sensei," Jiraiya said. "I couldn't let that bit…" he paused as she looked up at him given his near profanity "…I mean, that's the sort of thing you don't tolerate as a shinobi."

"Do not be so sure, student," Soi Fon noted. "The use of others to achieve your ends is indeed a basic facet of information gathering and covert operations."

"But you seemed just as angry as me…" Jiraiya responded, confused.

"Indeed," Soi Fon said. "She went about the process entirely the wrong way. There was incompetence strung all throughout this occurrence. I am ashamed to admit that these…practices had not been seen before now. I shall have to step up the overwatch on new recruits."

"Okay," Jiraiya said, rocking back on his heals a little.

"Twelve is the normal age for a genin to begin their career in your village, correct Jiraiya?" Soi Fon asked after another long silence.

"Umm, yeah…" Jiraiya noted, realizing that he had just recently turned twelve himself.

"Excellent," Soi Fon responded.

"Is there anything else you need, sensei?" Jiraiya asked.

"No, return to the Kurosaki house," Soi Fon noted. "We shall discuss this event further tomorrow at your normal training session."

"Hai sensei," he said.

"And do congratulate the happy couple on the coming addition to their family," she said.

"Huh?" Jiraiya asked.

"Word came this afternoon, student," she said. "You weren't here to hear."

"Umm, right," Jiraiya said. "I'll be going."

Soi Fon nodded casually as Jiraiya walked to the door. As he reached it, she couldn't resist one more comment to make him think.

"Remember to complete reading that scroll by tomorrow," she said, watching him wince out of the corner of her eye.

She successfully kept a smirk off her face as the child finally left the room to head for the Kurosakis.

Soi Fon was beginning to learn why her own sensei had been such a terrible tease.

It was quite amusing to watch the students squirm.

****

In the present, Soi Fon's face was less than amused as she crossed the courtyard to come give the news to both her student and the Kurosakis. She schooled her face into a normal neutral mask as she approached the small collection of figures.

"Well," Jiraiya asked moving up to meet her.

"I appear to be losing one of my better spies," Soi Fon said reluctantly.

That confused Jiraiya for a moment.

"It sounds like they'll be sending you home soon," Rukia translated.

Jiraiya turned to look at Rukia and then whooped, leaping into the sky and coming down in a flip.

"Thank you, Sensei!" he declares, hugging her bodily for a moment, not noticing the surprised expression on Soi Fon's face. "I swear, I'll find where that Yoruichi lady is and make her come home to you!"

"Yes," Soi Fon said, flushing bright red. "That's fine, but realize, we will be doing a great deal of training in the next few months."

"Getting him ready to take on the cleaner?" Ichigo asked.

"Avoid, more like it," Rukia corrected her husband as she held their four-year old son on her lap.

Soi Fon nodded at Rukia's comment as she disengaged herself from her student.

"Inform him of the necessary lore," Soi Fon said. "I must prepare."

With that, she quietly turned from the small group and walked briskly away.

Confused again, Jiraiya watched her leave and then turned back to the Kurosakis, shrugging his shoulders in silent question of what was bothering his sensei.

Ichigo suspected that he know of some of what was bothering the older shinigami, but he wasn't about to say anything to embarrass the woman further than she already had been.

"Don't worry about it," Rukia said. "Now, let's get home and celebrate!"

"Celeb'ate!" the youngest Kurosaki, named Chad after some human friend of the pair's, declared loudly.

****

Jiraiya was versed on the dangers of the bordering dimension, everything that can go wrong that had ever been encountered by either shinigami or others to make the trip. He'd been receiving rather intense training at the combined hands of Ichigo, Rukia and Soi Fon.

And he'd still had a few "favors" to get finished for Soi Fon-sensei.

As he walked to the site of the test beside and a little behind his sensei, he noted again that there was something off about the way the woman had been behaving ever since the day that she'd delivered the news that he was to prepare to head home soon.

"Sensei," he said quietly, stopping.

She kept walking ahead as if she hadn't heard.

"Sensei!" he repeated, not increasing volume even if he increased his insistence.

She paused in her walk.

"What did I do?" he asked.

Soi Fon sighed and turned around to face her student.

"You've exceeded my expectations," Soi Fon said. "You've stood out. And now you're going home."

"Aren't those…good things?" he asked, confused.

"Very," Soi Fon said. _For you._

She started to turn around again, neutral expression still in place. Though, after six years of learning and doing errands for her, Jiraiya had learned to note some of the emotions under the outer, featureless wall.

His sensei was still upset, and he somehow figured it had something to do with him, even if it wasn't him directly that had her upset.

"Will I be able to come back?" Jiraiya asked after a long silence.

"What?" Soi Fon asked. She started to walk forward again

"Will I be able to come back and visit?" the purple-haired ninja asked moving to catch up with her.

"Eventually, Jiraiya, you'll be back, one way or another," Soi Fon said quietly.

"Yeah, but before I die?" he clarified.

"Possible, but unlikely," Soi Fon noted.

"Oh, right," Jiraiya said, embarrassed. "The balance of souls."

"You will be called on if there is an emergency," Soi Fon said. "Especially one that involves the living world."

"So, the only time I get to see my sensei again is when I die or if there's some sort dangerous task needing to be done," the Uzumaki summarized.

"That about covers it," Soi Fon agreed, a slight smile sneaking out onto her face where Jiraiya couldn't see it.

Though he could hear it, and it did make him feel a little relieved.

****

There were a few key components that had been drilled into Jiraiya's mind as far as traversing the Dangai was concerned.

The first was simple enough.

You don't touch anything in the Dangai.

Ever.

The second was a corollary to this truth.

No spiritual essence or construct of yours touches anything in the Dangai.

Ever.

The third was a matter of time.

If the gate closes while you are moving from one place to another, you will be trapped forever. So you take no breaks and run as fast as you can for as long as you can.

The fourth involved something known only as "the janitor."

Simply put, if the janitor showed up…

…run faster and longer than you can possibly run.

And don't try to fight it.

The hope was that there wouldn't be a problem, that the trip would proceed without any incident as most such trips did.

However, they'd had…problems…in the past when humans and other ryoka had attempted to make the trip. Apparently, the Dangai world took its purpose seriously and tended to…overreact even to shinigami allies.

In any case, the test before him was accentuating a lot of these things.

The basic nature of the test was a run.

A two mile run by the looks of things.

A two mile run strung along with obstacles of all sorts.

A two mile run strung along with obstacles that by the looks of things were charged with some sort of power so as to make them somewhat less than pleasant to touch.

Glancing back over his shoulder, Jiraiya looked to see Renji Abarai doing some dramatically over-exaggerated warm-up stretches and smiling evilly in the Uzumaki's general direction.

This was quickly looking like it would be more than a little interesting.

"If you would take your starting position," Byakuya said as Soi Fon moved to take her seat among the rest of the captains.

Jiraiya scanned the crowds, noting the Kurosakis among the more common seats taking seats to watch the proceedings. Rukia waved at him encouragingly as Ichigo merely nodded at him. Across the way, amongst the captains and lieutenants, he flinched to see a pink haired girl who still looked about ten after six years.

Well…maybe she looked eleven now, it was hard to tell the difference. Then again, he didn't look exactly like he'd been in the Seireitei for six years. He was starting to get worried about stunted growth or something.

Jiraiya cringed as Yachiru waved at him and yelling loudly to do well and get stronger.

"If grape-hair would please get ready," Byakuya stated firmly in a rather bland manner.

Wincing to hear Yachiru's nickname for him coming out of the bland and intimidating swordsman, Jiraiya nevertheless moved to the starting mark of the course.

"The purpose of this test is gauge the readiness of one Jiraiya Uzumaki for making the trip back to the human world. Given the recent…reactionary nature of the Dangai's responses to human travelers," Isane said, she turned toward Jiraiya. "Whenever you might be ready, Uzumaki-kun."

Jiraiya took a long, deep breath, gathered his chakra and charged forward.

The Konoha shinobi was a hundred meters down the track, dodging a series of electrified hurdles, leaping over a pit of…something smelly. Things were beginning to look like they were going to be a lot more straightforward than he had originally thought.

"Hihio Zabimaru!!!" an echoing shout rang out behind him.

Hearing the sound of rapidly approaching crashes, Jiraiya flipped over the next obstacle, turning about in the air to see a giant skeletal snake thing crashing through the obstacle route behind him.

Apparently, this was their fill in for the janitor.

Time to run "faster than you can".

Turning to look ahead of him, Jiraiya narrowly missed contact with a red hot pair of poles.

Flashing his hands together in chakra shaping signs as quickly as he could, Jiraiya tried to ignore the sound of the bone-snake catching up behind him. That was until the jutsu he and Soi Fon had worked out completed and he flashed on ahead, ducking and diving through obstacles all along the way, with the bone snake slowly falling behind.

The jutsu started to fade away, and he could feel the power wearing away at his muscles, forcing them to move faster than they should have been able to.

Still, he could safely use it a few more times and he didn't have to use it right away. No, first he'd let the bone snake start to make up some ground and then.

Flash and away he was off again.

This was repeated several times over until finally, untouched save by sweat, Jiraiya crossed the finish line at the end of the course.

Behind him Renji let his bankai fall away as he walked to where Jiraiya was catching his breath at the end of the run.

"Good job, kid," Renji said, smirking. "Now, after all this work, it'll probably be just a walk down the hall."

"I hope not," Jiraiya said panting. "Hate to do all this for nothing."

He looked up to see Soi Fon standing and look down toward him with an acknowledging nod as the Kurosakis moved to come congratulate him.

Letting himself be helped back up by Renji, the lieutenant failed to notice, or chose not to notice, a hand slip into his shinigami robes and draw out a slim envelope.

_Part one of last favor to sensei, _Jiraiya thought to himself.

****

Nisha frowned as she watched the shinigami congratulating the human boy on his success.

Two years.

Two years of probation as an errand runner between the Gotei 13, not a member of any division and many of her rights and privileges curtailed because a human brat overheard her talking to a traitor's relative.

It had only been luck that she'd been practicing her senses when Jiraiya Uzumaki walked past her. And as he passed by, she recognized that strange, mutable, fluctuating feeling in energy she had felt before being revealed for what she was.

Now she was back to the divisions, but still only a minor shinigami in the 10th division, and unlikely to advance any further given the distrust her recent troubles had engendered in other shinigami.

And soon, the one responsible for it was going to get to go home.

Not if she could help it.

Still, if she were alone in this, she wouldn't have tried anything.

Fortunately, she wasn't alone.

****

Jiraiya gathered his things, all in a backpack as the Senkaimon was summoned to give him access to his home world.

Everybody was there, from his sensei's expressionless and silent presence to…

"Yay! Grape-hair!"

…Yachiru jumping up at him and shouting nonsense.

Behind her was Zaraki Kenpachi. Jiraiya had only talked to "Kenny" once before, but that was plenty.

The man was more than a little intimidating.

He'd chased Ichigo out toward a field soon after that first conversation and Jiraiya had witnessed something of the resultant battle from a marginally safe kilometer away.

The man was way beyond him, so he had to wonder just how crazy Yachiru had to be to think that Jiraiya could take him just yet.

He was a three years away from that much power.

At least three years.

"This is the official passage between the Seireitei and the living world," Byakuya explained. "It should be safe as long as you follow the Hell Butterfly, but we've had problems in the past, and more so in the past ten years. Hence the insistence on training."

Doors slid openly gracefully, revealing a bright, white light beyond.

"Beyond that door is the road to Konoha," Soi Fon said coolly as she moved in front of him. "If and when your soul returns to this side of things, I expect to see you in the academy."

"Right, sensei," Jiraiya said, bowing and surreptitiously slipping her the envelope he'd taken off of Renji at the end of his test.

"Have a good life, kid," Ichigo said encouragingly.

"If you see our daughter," Rukia noted. "Remind her to write a letter or two, I think it's been a month since we heard from her."

The goodbyes over, all that was left was for Jiraiya to start his trip.

As he slipped into the doorway behind the Hell Butterfly, waving back over his shoulder, Yachiru blinked as she seemed to twist her head to watching a patch of empty air further back away from the group.

When she suddenly dived past the group into the doors which Jiraiya was just now vanishing into.

"Grape-Hair!" she shouted as she dodged ahead, drawing confusion and much worry from those watching.

Before anybody else could move, the doors started to slip close.

"Hold them open!" Soi Fon demanded loudly.

****

As the unintimidating region of light faded away, Jiraiya began to get a nervous feeling. Suddenly, the black insect in front of him was slashed in twain as a figure started to come into view.

He recognized the woman, Nisha, that he had exposed almost four years ago, and his hands dashed forward angrily to grab the rogue shinigami's neck.

"Heh," Nisha smirked. "Go ahead and try it, the kouryu will still swallow you."

Jiraiya's eyes went wide as he looked about him, walls of light fading into a sludge of blackish, bluish sludge.

The young man was just starting to break into a run when a pink blur whipped through and grabbed him firmly before dragging him along the cooridor.

"Sorry, Grape-Hair has to get home," Yachiru yelled back over her shoulder as even Nisha started to realize she needed to move, quickly.

"It's gotta be this way!" Yachiru declared.

"Wh…" Jiraiya cursed as he tried to adapt to Yachiru's speed and acceleration

"Right, just let go and keep calling out these directions," Jiraiya yellowed out as he pulled the woman into for her own protections."

"That way!" Yachiru declared cheerfully.

****

A traveler stared at the rotating halo of energies in front of him, trying to figure out what it was. He wore a bandana about his head and dressed in rugged, orange and green travelers clothing. Some decades back, his expression would have been one of uncompromising rage and desperation.

Now, however, despite being cautious, he was only really interested in what was coming out of that portal.

It didn't take long. Fairly soon two bodies were dumping to the ground. A purple-haired kid following a tiny girl with pink hair coloring.

As they stood up, the purple haired boy looked around and grimaced.

"This isn't the road to Konoha, where's the forest!?" he demanded.

"Oh well, I took the wrong way! But we're here aren't we?" the pink-haired girl said.

Finally, they seemed to notice the man that had just watched them appear out of nowhere.

"Hey, sir," the purple-haired kid said. "Where are we?"

One Ryouga Hibiki sweated as the question was asked.


	8. Diagnostic Sparring

Neji watched as Ranma and Akane returned with an unconscious and battered Genma Saotome carried on the man's back to be deposited roughly on the floor in front of the Konoha jonin.

Akane looked around, noting that Nabiki had already returned home with her ninja-bodyguard.

"There he is," Ranma said grimly. "We'll have to call up the Kumons again. They won't be happy."

"The Kumons should be getting a similar message as you did Saotome-san," Neji said. "My wife should be arriving at their home any time now. Your sister apparently included them as a reference."

The look in Neji's face was clear to the Saotomes. He was wondering just how they had managed to completely vanish as they had. Neither Akane nor Ranma were about to explain the secrets of the Umisenken.

"Chi adepts," Neji noted finally.

"Masters," Akane corrected.

"That's how you vanished like that," Neji said. "Some how, you let your coils flow freely with the chi of the environment. There must be a risk to that."

"That's why it's a sealed art," Akane said, simply, ignoring the man's analysis.

"You used a sealed art to take a single man prisoner?" Neji asked, curious as to how powerful the man that had escaped Konoha justice was.

"Oyaji would have slipped if we hadn't," Ranma said. "We've had ta fight this fight before, ain't gonna let turn into a whole deal again."

"If I may," Neji said. "What is the history of your school?"

"There's no secret to it," Akane said, shrugging. "We didn't agree with them meddling in how we ran the school they supposedly left to us."

"Or getting our students killed," Ranma muttered.

"Right," Akane noted, wishing Ranma wouldn't let information like that slip.

"Long story, short," Ranma said. "We kicked their ass and made them promise not to try teaching any more on pain of extreme butt-kicking."

"I see," Neji said, arching an eyebrow at the "grandmaster's" rather vulgar way of phrasing things. "In any case, would you be opposed to my waiting here for word from Konoha. I'd like to make certain that this man does not slip from our justice again."

"Nah," Ranma said. "We got space."

"I'm going to go get Kasumi and Tofu," Akane said, gearing up to walk out of the dojo compound. "You've got him until then?"

"Given what we hit him with," Ranma said. "He should be down for the next few hours, an' I ain't untying him."

"Thought so," Akane said, smiling.

Ranma slowly turned around toward Neji, a particularly thoughtful expression on his face.

"Now, what can you tell me about my sisters?" he asked.

****

Ryoko hummed quietly to herself as she swept up the floor to the porch in front of the Uzumaki house. It was hard not to see how nervous she was, but, then again, it was hardly unusual for Ryoko to be nervous about something.

Most people that passed by wouldn't have thought much of Ryoko's chore. Most hadn't seen Ryoko's more extreme methods of self-training or how closely she absorbed and analyzed any motion that occurred near her. Any jonin that had contact with her for more than a few seconds recognized her attitude, and a handful of chunin.

However, for the most part, people, ninja or otherwise, tended to view Ryoko as a harmlessly shy young girl taken in by the Uzumakis. Some rumors about potential child abuse from her real parents had leaked through the village, but for the most part she just went unnoticed.

The young Saotome's semi-meditation came to an abrupt end, however, as a figure walked up the street and stopped in front of the Uzumaki house, waving at her in a friendly manner.

"Morning, Ryoko-chan," the man in front of her said, watching her near flinch as he caught her attention. "Is Kuren around?"

"Iie, Yuhi-sama," she said. "I…I do believe that she is with her sensei."

"Sen…" Kouki frowned. "I missed graduation didn't I."

"You were on a mission, Yuhi-sama," Ryoko offered, as if it wasn't anything that could be helped.

It didn't help too much. Kouki Yuhi mother was Hinata's first jonin-sensei as well as Kuren Uzumaki's godmother. Kouki's own sensei, Shikamaru, had been very close friends with Naruto.

That made the Uzumaki's family in some regards.

Granted, he had treated them as any child would treat family friends until a few years back.

****

If there was one thing a fifteen year old young man hated, it was family obligations. As genin of Konoha, he had responsibilities to be using his ninja-skills to aid the village, not wasting time hanging out with his mother's friends.

The fact that they were all ninja as well didn't make it any better. Even if life were getting a bit quiet now, why would so many shinobi be spending a night just hanging together. Heck, the Uzumaki's son had just vanished somewhere if he'd heard the gossip correctly, shouldn't they be looking for him? Or at least the man who'd caused them to disappear?

Yet, here he was, at the Uzumaki house, watching and listening to a rather subdued party.

His mother was talking Hinata and his sensei was talking to Naruto. Shikamaru-sensei's wife was handling Kuren and the other two girls, turning the whole thing into a sort of mini-lesson.

Temari-sensei was evil the way she snuck lessons into any sort of conversation with her.

As for Kouki, he had set up a go board in the hopes that he could at least get a good game out of Shikamaru-sensei. Not to be, however, as the old man was deciding to engage in small talk instead.

So, he was sitting down and staring at the go board as he set it up to study a previous match he had had with Shikamaru-sensei.

Kouki was studying the board intently, trying to find a way to prevent the death that would strike one of his largest territories the next turn, when a voice broke into his thoughts.

"Ano…may I play?" the girl asked. "I'll take black."

Looking up from his examination, Kouki noticed the older of the two outsider girls that the Uzumakis had apparently taken in.

"Sure, why not," Kouki responded with a shrug. Black was losing, that was what he'd been playing.

"Yatta!" the girl responded happily sitting down enthusiastically. "I play with Dad all the time. This is a very difficult game!"

As she spoke, she took a dark stone and placed it down.

Kouki glanced down at the board irritably. The girl's move had saved the black side nothing.

The young man immediately went forward with the move that his sensei had taken in the original game, and black's primary territory was gutted. The girl seemed unperturbed as she responded with another black stone. This continued for several minutes, with more and more black stones being captured.

The girl seemed remarkably passive in her playing, like she wasn't trying to capture anything.

Slowly, Kouki's attention was full immersed in the game and he failed to note as the other participants of the small party came around them to watch, Shikamaru's eyebrow arching highly as he watched the game progress.

It was an hour into the game that Kouki started to notice that useful plays were becoming more scarce. He had counted three sekis in play before he held off on looking for a move to take and instead decided to take the whole board in, something he probably should have done much earlier.

There were a lot more than three sekis, in fact, if he had to lay his guess, the girl had been doing nothing but generating sekis since she started playing against him. More than a third of the board was taken up by stones that he neither side could make a move nearby without giving the other side an opportunity.

He looked up at the girl in surprise and then started experimenting.

"You're paralyzing the board," he said twelve minutes later. "You're going to make a draw."

The black haired girl flinched and bit her lip.

"Ano…" she said hesitantly.

"I've even given you three perfect chances to capture my pieces," he noted indicating what he was talking about. "And you made sekis out of all three chances. Hell, on the last two, I spent several moves trying to prevent you from making it a seki and you still managed it. Are you going to try to win any time soon?"

"Ano…" Ryoko said. "I could not capture those pieces."

"All you had to do was put a stone here," Kouki protested, indicating the appropriate spot.

"But when I do that, the mice take the stones," Ryoko said.

"The mice…what?" Temari asked.

"I put a stone here and then Father asks me to get him a drink or his pipe," Ryoko noted. "And when I come back, many of my stones are gone. Father says the mice take them. So, if I avoid capturing pieces, then I can keep the mice from taking more stones."

Several people stared at her in perplexity as the obviousness of her explanation came clear.

"Dad cheats when he notices she's winning," Joseibi explained bluntly.

"Imouto-chan!" Ryoko gasped in response to the younger girl's explanation.

"So, what you're saying," Kouki translated through narrowed eyes, "is that you developed a strategy to play the game in a way that wouldn't make your father feel like he needed to cheat."

"Ano…" Ryoko said hesistantly.

"It's an interesting strategy," Shikamaru noted, looking at the board. "Forcing your opponent to tie his existence together with yours. Depending on the scoring method, and how much attention you pay, she could end up winning with it."

"She takes hostages," Kurenai agreed causing another wince from Ryoko at that particular description of her strategy.

"Ano…" Ryoko repeated, flushing brightly as her little strategy was so thoroughly analyzed after only one incomplete game.

Father had never noticed.

"Mind if I have a game when you're finished here, Kouki," Shikamaru asked. "I want to see what tricks she has up her sleeve."

"Ano…" Ryoko repeated again, biting her lip hard.

****

Kouki smiled at the memory and then looked back down at Ryoko, comparing the memory of that ten year old girl with the sixteen year-old young woman in front of him. She hadn't gained much height, but there was no questioning that she had matured a lot. He wouldn't have been surprised if she'd started to attract attention from some of the boys her age around the village in the last two years.

"So, what's been going on while I'm gone, Ryoko-chan," he asked finally.

"It has been busy, Yuhi-sama," Ryoko noted hesitantly. "There is a…visitor in town. She seems to have some connection with my family school."

Kouki frowned at that. What he knew of Musabetsu Kakuto-Ryu was limited to the two girls, and Joseibi wasn't the student of the art that Ryoko was, and their father.

"She says father is not allowed to teach students," Ryoko continued.

Suddenly Kouki was much more approving of this unknown visitor.

"So what's she been doing?" Kouki asked.

"Well…" Ryoko said. "So far, she has fought Inuzuka-sama, Akimichi-sama, Guy-sama, Kakashi-sama and both Lee-samas. They are repairing the arena today so that she can fight Naruto Uzumaki-sama and Hinata Uzumaki-sama tomorrow."

Kouki stared at her, blinking.

"That is what she was here for," Ryoko explained. "She seeks to test her strength and exchange martial secrets."

Kouki nodded his head in understanding. The woman sounded like she was running her own constant chunin exam against herself.

"How have the fights gone so far?" he asked.

"She defeated Guy-sama and Akimichi-sama," Ryoko said. "She lost to Rock Lee-sama and Kakashi-sama, fought Inuzuka-sama and Sakura Lee-sama to a draw."

"2-2-2," Kouki noted. "Not bad. Does she use your school?"

"Hai," Ryoko said. "She knows several of the secret techniques that belong to my father. She has said that she wishes to test myself and Joseibi, but Hokage-sama insists on waiting to hear vouchers of her good character first."

"That sounds like a good idea," Kouki said not specifying whether he meant the vouchers or the test. "Do you want a spar to get ready, Ryoko-chan?"

"I do not think she will use genjutsu, Yuhi-sama," she said. "Do you think it would help?"

"I'm a fair taijutsuka as well, you know. And a spar couldn't hurt, besides, how often does someone around here challenge you to a spar?" Kouki asked with a shrug.

Ryoko's returned smile was as wide and energetic as any of her nervous streaks tended to be.

"I shall just need to finish with the chores for the day," she said happily.

****

Joseibi leaned her head down on the counter of Ichiraku Ramen as her teammates next to her likewise came up to get seats. Kuren was nearly as out of breath and sore as Joseibi seemed to be. Jubei Lee at least appeared to have not even been a bit worn down, but the two girls had caught him wincing several of the times he took a normal seeming step on his right leg.

"What kind of mission was that?" Joseibi muttered.

"Clean up the arena," Kuren said wearily. "Gads, Joseibi, you're going to have to spar the woman that did all that damage."

"I'm quite certain that a master of that level will not do anything to hurt a student," Jubei noted. "Still, I would like to have seen how they managed to bring down that pillar."

"Ryoko says she channels chi into her ribbon," Joseibi said wearily.

"You mean chakra," Jubei corrected his teammate.

"She means chi," Kuren responded before Joseibi could say something vulgar. "I know, I had to look it up myself. It's another energy source, different from chakra. Joseibi's sister seems to use it too. It took my parents a couple of years to see the difference."

"What is the difference?" Jubei asked.

"I don't know," Joseibi said. "I can barely touch the stuff, I'm our genjutsuka remember? I use chakra like you do. And I don't think Ryoko knows much of the difference either."

"I think Mom tried to explain it once before," Kuren noted, shrugging.

Jubei frowned at the lax manner of his teammates.

"Perhaps I should ask this woman for an explanation then," he said.

"Be my guest," Joseibi said, shaking her head and thinking back a few weeks towards when her team had tried to figure out just what a walk was.

****

"Okay," Kuren said. "We're supposed to go on a 'walk' and from what we got from Mom and Dad, when Kiba says a 'walk' he means a mission, but we still haven't figured out just what sort of mission he's talking about."

"Well, why would you call it a walk?" Joseibi asked as she wandered around the training ground they had chosen to meet at.

"I think that's obvious," Jubei said. "A walk is something you go on with a dog. As Kiba-sensei is an Inuzuka, he obviously relates to everything in the manner of a dog."

"So why do you go on walks with a dog?" Kuren asked.

"So the dog can go take a dump," Joseibi responded, snorting.

Jubei shook his head at the Saotome girl's crude behavior.

"It is obviously some sort of bonding exercise," Jubei said. "Perhaps we should face each other in spars to have a better sense of each other's abilities. In fact…"

Joseibi froze, hoping and praying that she was wrong about what was coming next.

"Saotome, I challenge you to match right now," Jubei said.

"Oh damn it," she said. "You said it."

"I am given to understand, Saotome," Jubei said with a smirk. "That your family takes it as a matter of pride not to turn down any challenge."

"You told him that?" Joseibi asked, turning toward Kuren.

"Not me," Kuren said firmly, shaking her head and waving her arms.

"Are you going to accept the challenge or not, Saotome?" Jubei asked with a smirk.

"Fine," Joseibi said. "You get to try and kick my ass, let's get it over with."

Kuren stepped back away from the two as she watched them square off in the center of the training field.

"I've got winner," Kuren called out.

"I plan not to hold back, Saotome," Jubei said, smirking superiorly.

"Yeah, that's a family thing too," Joseibi admitted.

"Okay," Kuren said, from a safe distance. "Begin!"

Jubei moved forward at speed, smiling broadly as Joseibi desperately started shifting through hand signs. The Taijutsu specialist had almost crossed the space to her when he blinked and suddenly she seemed to be far away again, as if he had just traveled back in time by a second or more.

Charging straight at his target, his run was suddenly interrupted when his feat swept out from under him and he rolled to a sudden and unexpected tumble into the ground.

Rolling back to his feet, confused at what had just happened, the shinobi turned to find his adversary. Already she was trying to form another hand sign, but this time Jubei was on her in a flash.

Joseibi found herself hard pressed to dodge the intense speed of the young man's punches and kicks. She could only barely keep ahead of Jubei's blows, and that only because of the Ja Jinku no Hebi. She had no way to get anything of her own done.

Of course, she hadn't pulled out her Haoto no Suzumebachi yet either.

"So is this everything you got?" Joseibi asked. "I thought you were some sort of big genius of hard work or something. My scared cat sister wouldn't even be phased by this."

The words had the desired effect, drawing a growl from the taijutsuka as he launched a punch that overcommitted him to one direction. Dodging aside, feet taking her solidly past Jubei as he stumbled again past her, Joseibi rushed through her hand signs again.

She finished just as Jubei stood up.

"---nius of hard work or something. My scared cat sister wouldn't even be phased by this," Jubei heard as he launched his fist forward at the image of his tormentor.

Even before she danced aside, he felt something come out of nowhere to slam into his head, driving him off to the side.

He regained his balance and sought out his enemy only to suddenly have the sensation of dizzying pain whip through his mind again and again he had to recover his balance.

Exactly as he had small seconds previously.

He barely managed to block Joseibi's strike out of nowhere this time.

Jubei frowned as he remembered that Joseibi had scored high marks on genjutsu theory.

That thought came a second time and he knew for sure what Joseibi was doing.

She was making his mind relive the past second or two of time, allowing her a chance to know what he was about to do.

This time he blocked the strike against him much more easily and, before the former outsider could move to make another genjutsu, he grabbed at her hands and twisted them around behind her back.

"Ouch!" Joseibi shrieked as she quickly found herself in a submission hold that kept her hands wide apart and unable to form seals. "Damn it."

"Do you yield Saotome?" Jubei demanded with a smirk she couldn't see.

If Joseibi were Ryoko, she'd have gone through pain-control training. Then she could easily dislocate a limb to got of a hold like this and push it back in later, trusting a quick healing time to avoid permanent damage.

However, there was no way that Ryoko would have put her younger sister through that training and so she couldn't push herself through the actions she needed to take to push herself free.

Fortunately, Ryoko had a much less painful alternative.

Joseibi let herself turn totally slack and relaxed. Unprepared for the sudden dead weight, Jubei's grip slipped fractionally and instantly Joseibi took advantage of it, pushing one hand into a pocket and grabbing a vial of liquid from within.

Suddenly, Jubei had, not a twelve year-old girl, but a small blonde fox stepping wildly out of his grasp, shedding her bundle of clothes along the way.

The shinobi had seen Joseibi's curse in action before, of course, but he never expected the girl to actually use it as a tactic for escape, and now, his planned martial challenge had devolved into him chasing around a little fox that was jumping all over him and scratching and biting painfully wherever it could.

"Come here…damn…" Jubei growled. "You little…this is not a proper challenge! Gah! Stop biting me you little furball!"

Finally, however, Joseibi's limited skill ran headlong into Jubei's speed and accuracy and she found herself hanging from the scruff of his neck in the other ninja's grasp as Jubei Lee stared at her, panting from sheer aggravation as his eyebrow ticked.

The fox in his hand likewise had its forepaws crossed and was staring at him with a grumbling expression as she growled bitterly.

"I think I have to call that Jubei's win, Joseibi," Kuren said.

"Of course," Jubei said grimly. "There is no way that she could beat me."

****

Joseibi shook her head irritably.

That had been one hell of a "bonding" activity, not to mention the second test that came the day after, but she think about that later.

That loss to Jubei had cost her an extra hour of training every other morning after Ryoko had heard about it. Her elder sister had her practicing escapes and grappling, not the black-haired girl's best skill, but she was still better than Joseibi.

Beyond that, Inuzuka-baka had her running exercises in fox form. He was even promising a few techniques that would make her puny fox-form a worthy opponent rather than merely an annoyance.

****

"We haven't heard from your sisters or their husbands yet," Tsunade told Kurumi, "However, some of the closer names you gave us have already started returning word. So far your claim seems to bear out."

The phrase "don't offer to treat her to lunch" had also been repreated a lot, but, then Tsunade had realized that problem the first day that the woman had showed up in Konoha.

"That's good to hear," Kurumi said, nodding. "And I swear that I've never eaten anyone out of house or home, by the way. Whatever they say."

"Right," Tsunade noted. "Now, if you're ready, while the arena is being repaired from your and Sakura's…battle..."

"Hey, she caused just as much damage as I did," Kurumi protested.

"…anyway," Tsunade noted grumpily. "Naruto and Hinata are ready to supervise your testing the girls."

"That's good to hear," Kurumi said. "The quicker we get this done, the quicker we know what to treat."

"How do you plan to go about this?" Tsunade asked.

"There are several danger techniques I need to check for," Kurumi said. "I'm going to be provoking their use, like I sort of did with the nekoken before. Even if he's added something I should catch a hint of it. We've all had to do this before."

"And who is we?" Tsunade asked. "Your school."

"Yeah," Kurumi said. "Happosai and Genma's methods are dangerous. Genma doesn't think through the long-term consequences of what he does and Happosai doesn't care unless it could hurt his goals. Both of them get ideas and then test out if it's a good idea or not by putting their students through it."

"Like the nekoken?" Tsunade asked.

"Ryoko and Joseibi's brother went through the training repetitively from ages six to ten," Kurumi said grimly. "But there are a few others. Hinako Tendo's technique went amuck soon after she gave birth. That was…not pretty."

"And your appetite," Tsunade asked, arching an eyebrow.

Kurumi looked up sheepishly.

"Yeah, my appetite," Kurumi admitted.

"Do any of you have problems with…exploding?" Tsunade asked.

"Exploding?" Kurumi asked.

"Ryoko produces a burst of energy when she gets too frightened," Tsunade noted. "It appears to be harmful, to herself and the area around her."

"He found something new," Kurumi cursed. "We can fix the nekoken now, damn it. Any fear, or is it specific?"

"It seems to be any fear, but there is at least one definite trigger," Tsunade said. "Scraping steel, like the sound of drawing a sword."

"Have you figured anything out?" Kurumi asked. "From what I can tell, you're more the medical expert than I am."

"We don't want to provoke an episode without more information," Tsunade said firmly, making it clear that she wouldn't tolerate anyone risking that either.

"Well," Kurumi said. "I guess all that's left is to track the girls down and see what's what."

****

Team Kiba were finishing their meal and preparing to head to their separate homes, shared in the case of Joseibi and Kuren. Those plans were stopped, however, as they found Hinata Uzumaki and their sensei coming up behind them.

"The day's not over yet," Kiba said.

"Mom?" Kuren asked, questionably.

"References came back on our visitor," Hinata said seriously. "The Hokage gave her permission to test you and your sister."

"But we just spent the day cleaning the arena," Joseibi said.

"Yeah, and now you get to see it destroyed again," Kiba agreed. "Come on, you're not always going to get a good night's rest between missions."

Hinata gave her old teammate a brief disapproving look.

"She's going to be testing your sister today, Joseibi," Hinata said. "You'll be fine to do this tomorrow, but let's go support your sister."

"Do you mind if watch this as well?" Jubei asked. "I've been wondering quite a bit about Ryoko Saotome's level of skill given the way your daughter and her sister speak of her."

"I don't think that'll be a problem," Hinata said with a smile.

****

Naruto landed on a tree and looked down to see Ryoko and Kouki lightly sparring in the training field below. Well, lightly sparring by the definition of a Lee or Saotome at least.

He watched for a few moments, not happy about interrupting this. Sparring was generally one of the few times Ryoko was perfectly at ease. Still, he had his instructions.

The Spiral Sage leaped down between the two sparring partners, instantly breaking the exercise up as the two came to a rest looking on Naruto as he took them in.

"Sorry to bring this to an end," Naruto said. "But the Hokage's given Kurumi her permission. Ryoko, are you ready for this?"

"Hai, Uzamaki-sama," Ryoko said. "I'm ready."

"Then time to go," Naruto said. "Kouki, want to go tell your mom?"

"Where's it happening?" the shinobi asked.

"Well, Team Kiba just finished repairing the arena," Naruto said with a smirk. "So might as well give them something to do tomorrow."

"Right, destroying the arena again, got it," Kouki said. "Good luck, Ryoko-chan. We'll be there rooting for you."

"Thank you, Yuhi-sama," Ryoko said with a bow as Kouki reluctantly went off to go find his mother and probably Shikamaru.

"Are you really sure about this?" Naruto asked her when they were alone.

"Hai, Uzamaki-sama," the be-spectacled martial artist said.

****

The arena was sparsely populated, but there were a few curiosity seekers beyond just those that the Saotome girls knew directly.

Jubei looked down at the skittish girl and wondered just what sort of amusing display the girl would be able to put forth. He'd seen Kurumi Tendo fight. The woman was an S-class foe, of that there was no doubt.

She was so far beyond a coward like Ryoko that the entire concept of this match was insane.

"So now we get to see how good she is," Joseibi whispered. Even the blonde wasn't sure whether she was talking about her sister or the Tadashita-ryu mistress.

Down below, Kurumi stood across from Ryoko and analyzed the girl's stance.

On the surface, Ryoko appeared to be standing in a polite, formal posture more akin to beginning a tea ceremony than a fight, but Kurumi was looking deeper. The stance was different from the slouching posture most Musabetsuka used, old school or Tadashita-ryu, but still, there was no doubt.

The girl's arms were at her side with the elbows angled inward to cross over her waist, but they weren't merely hanging loose. No her arms were posed with the appearance of a relaxed stance. Likewise, she was resting lightly on her feet, weight evenly spaced over both and ready to shift to one or another in a moment's notice.

Ryoko was in the Utsuro Kamae.

"Shall, we get on with this, kid?" Kurumi asked, cracking her knuckles as she smirked at her opponent.

"Hai, Kurumi-sensei," Ryoko said with a deep bow.

As the girl bowed, Kurumi launched outward with a quick roundhouse kick which Ryoko easily dodged aside.

"You shouldn't take your eyes off your opponent, Ryoko-chan," Kurumi said as she pressed the attack, focusing on a succession of low kicks and foot swipes.

Kurumi found as Ryoko dodged each one, recognizing the movements of the original Ja Jinku no Hebi.

"Ano…" Ryoko said, lifting up her foot and then moving into a full hop and flip to avoid a sequence of Kurumi's attacks. "Sumimasen, Kurumi-sensei."

"Don't bother apologizing for the mistake, kid," Kurumi said. "Just start taking this seriously."

"Hai, Kurumi-sensei," Ryoko said as she started to slip past one side of Kurumi's stance. "Onbin-Gegei Ippo ne Rei."

Kurumi started to block that motion, but, as she did, Ryoko was already darting around her opposite side, a whirl of the girl's wide sleeves obscuring her actions.

The Wandering Mistress had to appreciate the move, most people wouldn't have been able to even see the motion. Their brains would have filled in an image of Ryoko continuing to the left or right and they would have missed her going around the opposite way entirely.

Kurumi had to stretch to avoid the foot swing at her ear and still maintain a position from which she can easily strike back.

"You think a little trick like that is going to work on a master?" Kurumi demanded with a smirk as she turned about with a flurry of near amaguriken speed punches.

"Ano…" Ryoko fretted. "I..I shall try to do better."

Each of her strikes was blocked easily by a pair of fingers held tightly together.

That was the Mure no Suzumebachi.

No sign of the Haoto no Suzumebachi yet, however.

Kurumi launched out a slow, for her, kick and watched as Ryoko pressed herself to intercept it. Amazingly, the wandering mistress watched and felt as the younger martial artist's hands tightened around the leg and Ryoko pulled against the anchor of Kurumi's motion.

Forced into a forward roll to avoid the painful impact that Ryoko's actions would have doomed most fighters too, Kurumi came to the floor and immediately was back to her feet, watching Ryoko taking to the air behind her.

"You stole my wind, little punk," Kurumi said approvingly, smile wide. "And I wasn't even off the ground."

"Ano…" Ryoko said as she felt her stolen momentum fading even as Kurumi launched herself into the air to meet the Saotome. "I do not mean to be a bother, Kurumi-sensei."

"Don't play coy, kid," Kurumi said, punching outward and waiting for Ryoko to steal the wind again.

Jubei was now watching rapt as the fight continued. Even though it was obvious that Kurumi wasn't even starting to exert herself, the extent to which Ryoko was performing was beyond anything Jubei would have expected from the cowardly girl.

He wasn't alone in his surprise.

Glancing around, several watching chunin and genin were gaping in disbelief as the older Saotome sister darted about the arena, only just shorter than the casually fighting Wandering Mistress.

As the younger fighter's hand came out to grab for Kurumi's attacking limb, the elder martial artist threw herself backwards in a flip towards the ground that launched the surprised younger martial artist straight upwards without her own control. The wandering mistress hit the ground and immediately launched herself upward again.

Predictably, the Saotome had control of her motion by the time Kurumi reached her again, thirty feet in the air.

"Ano…" Ryoko said as she avoided a hail of punches. "Sumimasen, Kurumi-sensei. I did not recognize that technique."

"That's because your brother made it," Kurumi said as she systematically broke apart the younger girl's defenses, not close to humoring her. "You don't expect us just to use what came before, do you?"

Ryoko didn't have time to land as she was thrust downwards with more speed than gravity alone could apply. Kurumi watched carefully as she drifted much more slowly to the ground. The black haired girl's falls method was again, predictably, based on one of Genma's dangerous ideas.

"Lion club training," she muttered as Ryoko landed harshly, bending her body to avoid possible lethal obstacles, such as sharp stones, and absorb some of the impact.

Kurumi winced as she saw Ryoko land a little off and her shoulder push out of joint, but was surprised that there was barely a flinch from Ryoko. Kurumi was getting ready to call the test when Ryoko calmly slammed her shoulder into a wall to set it back into place.

Every martial artist, with rare exceptions, had a higher than normal resistance for pain. Several had body-hardening or avoidance techniques for preventing pain, but few could outright ignore pain the way Ryoko was.

"Moushiwake arimasen," Ryoko said, bowing. "I was careless. I am still ready to fight."

The tadashitaka was confused for a brief moment until she remembered where she'd seen this before. Any time Tatewaki or Kodachi took a severe blow, they acted similarly.

"He stole Ao Dah Jong from the Kunos' father," Kurumi cursed. "Wasn't he happy enough with his own tortures?"

This time, Ryoko took the offensive.

"Sumimasen, Kurumi-sensei," she said hesitantly. "Onbin-gegei Bikou Odori."

Kurumi grimaced at the continuing apologies as she blocked the initial strike, and then Ryoko was behind her. Still operating on a lower level to avoid outright obliterating the girl, Kurumi tried to follow Ryoko's motion, but failed to bring the girl around in front of her.

The younger martial artist was less than a foot behind Kurumi, moving something like a living shadow. Kurumi's entire back was open to the younger martial artist as the girl proved almost impossible to dislodge, almost as if she were attached to the master like a shadow.

Kurumi rolled with each strike coming at her as she tried to force Ryoko out of her position without turning up the heat, as it were. She let herself immerse in the flow of the chi about the arena and followed the trails of chi from one position to another.

Which showed something very interesting.

Kurumi's chi flowed into her and out, straight into Ryoko.

Ryoko was attached, exactly like a shadow. She could read every bit of Kurumi's intentions through the chi that came off the Tadashita Mistress. The attunement wasn't as efficient as it could be, even for one of Genma's students, Ryoko's chi was clumsy, but she had managed to find the part of the flow that was colored by Kurumi.

The Wandering Mistress smirked and immediately dropped into the soul of ice.

"That was a neat move there, Ryoko-chan," the mistress said. "But not enough."

The rapid change of chi broke the connection Ryoko held and, before the girl could re-establish the attunement, Kurumi rolled about and came behind the younger lashing out with a kick that pulled Ryoko's feet out from under her, and sending the younger martial artist into a defensive roll.

Kurumi pursued swiftly, expecting the girl to roll out and regroup as she had herself earlier. Then the two legs slipped out and nearly clipped Kurumi's chin as Ryoko pushed her roll backwards leaping back over the elder.

"Ano…" Ryoko whined. "M..must we continue this, Kurumi-sensei."

The apology brought Kurumi's teeth grinding again. When was the girl going to start using a proper Haoto. This apology after apology was really getting on her…

"Wait," Kurumi said as she caught a fist from Ryoko and switched into Tetsu-Nigiri, a Tendo-ryu grappling technique that Ryoko apparently had no access to.

"Your Haoto no Suzumebachi is…apologies?!" Kurumi practically shouted in surprise.

"Sumimasen," Ryoko gasped from within the one armed grapple that Kurumi had just put her in. "I…do not mean to be disrespectful."

"Disrespectful," Kurumi shouted in disbelief. "Girl, you're devious! I was prepared for insults and boasts. But I've never been set off my game by apologies and stuttering."

Jubei turned toward Joseibi, a question on his face. He wasn't the only one looking to the younger Saotome.

"What does she mean by Haoto no Suzumebachi," Jubei asked. "What is this 'buzzing of hornets'?"

"One of the basic tenets of Musabetsu Kakuto Ryu is to set your opponent off balance," Joseibi said. "Psychologically and spiritually as well as physically."

"You're saying that one of your family's basic techniques is insulting your opponent?" Kurenai asked, surprised.

"Or apologize to them in Ryoko's case," Kouki noted.

"Moushiwake arimasen," Ryoko gasped. "But your Haoto no Suzumebachi involves praising the opponent for near successes."

"I suppose we're not that far off," Kurumi said shaking her head. "Do you have anything else you want to try out, because I think we're done here if you are."

"No, Kurumi-sensei," Ryoko said from her position in the hold, a hold she wasn't finding anyway out of. "I have nothing else to show you."

That said, Kurumi let Ryoko go and stretched out casually as Ryoko panted to try and catch her breath.

"Ano…Kurumi-sensei?" Ryoko said as people started to come down to the arena floor. "What rank am I?"

"That really depends, Ryoko-chan," Kurumi said. "In some skills you're disciple-rank, but in other skills you're barely a student. You have nothing of the Tendo-ryu whatsoever, and those are important skills for the complete art."

"Hai, Kurumi-sensei," Ryoko said, sounding disappointed.

"But I'll have to talk to you about your Onbin-Gegei," Kurumi noted. "That's looking to be a top-notch avoidance style. Where'd you pick it up?"

"Ano…" Ryoko said. "I copied Father. He uses something similar at times."

Kurumi narrowed her eyes as she asked the next question.

"Does he use a large piece of cloth when he does this?" she asked.

"Hai, Kurumi-sama," Ryoko said, drawing a shaking head from the elder martial artist. "I…is something wrong?"

"Your father's been using a sealed technique," Kurumi explained. "Something that's only supposed to be used in the most extreme or important of circumstances."

"Ano…" Ryoko said, nervous.

"Don't worry about your Onbin-Gegei," Kurumi reassured her, reaching out a hand to ruffle the girls hair. "It's not the same thing. Now, go to your friends."

"Hai, Kurumi-sensei!" Ryoko responded as she moved quickly to go speak to the Uzumakis and her younger sister's team.

The hokage, appearance still that of a twenty-year old woman, walked up to Kurumi as Ryoko moved off with the others. Beside her were a couple of medics with notepads, ready to listen to Kurumi's diagnosis. Among them was the pink-haired woman that Kurumi had drawn against just recently.

"Well?" Tsunade asked.

"Ja Jinku no Hebi, Mure no Suzumebachi, Lion's Club Training and Ao Dah Jong," Kurumi listed off. "Those are the worst ones. Everything else probably uses the same training techniques we do minus safety concerns and watching for training accidents."

"Those are either his own creations or obscure techniques," Tsunade noted. "Since I don't want to waste time looking them up, can you give me a run down?"

"Most of them are unique to our school, so you won't find them anyway," Kurumi said. "Ja Jinku no Hebi is our advanced footwork technique. Genma tends to jump right to the deadliest level of training."

"And that training?" Tsunade asked, noting that it involved something to do with snakes.

"The trainee is required to run katas on a ground filled with poisonous serpents," Kurumi said. "With us, the trainee has to have passed four levels each of speed and mastery before training with actual snakes and they have to request it for themselves and show that they know the risk. Also, we have an age limit and one of our disciples breeds de-venomed snakes especially for the exercise."

"Any long term effects of Genma's version?" Tsunade asked.

"You might want to test for neurological damage from the toxins, though I think she escaped that," Kurumi said. "We think the poisons stunt growth as well. She's probably not getting much taller and she's a good foot and a half shorter than either of her parents. At sixteen, you might be able to give her one more growth spurt if it can be corrected."

"All right," the hokage noted, turning toward one of her assistants and nodding.

"What about the others?" the pink-haired woman asked harshly. "The Mure no Suzumebachi for instance."

"Created for her brother after he'd already had speed training," Kurumi said. "The highest level of training is complete when you can stun every bee or hornet in a swarm before you can be stung even once. That was all right for amaguriken-trained disciples, but we had to adapt less lethal methods for initiates and others. Some of Genma's younger students that went through it ended up with severe allergies to insect venoms."

"I'm liking their father less and less," Sakura muttered.

"I'm hoping Lion Club training isn't what I think it is," Tsunade said.

"It is, unfortunately," Kurumi said. "She was probably dropped off a fifty foot cliff sometime around eight years old and expected to either climb or leap her way up to the top on her own. We don't use this at all in Tadashita-ryu. Genma uses it ostensibly as a way to teaching how to handle long falls."

"We'll have to check for old injuries," Tsunade frowned. "Flaws in the spine, minor skull fractures. Things we wouldn't look for on a normal check up."

"That just leaves Ao Dah Jong," Kurumi said. "It's a demon-hunter technique used by the samurai of the Kuno family for a long time. It is, pure and simple, pain tolerance. Subjecting yourself to dislocated joints and terrible injuries. It requires both keeping active with them and being able to treat them on the fly while still fighting."

"Calculated and precise torture," Sakura gasped. "On his own daughter. Why didn't you just kill these people? How could let even the possibility of this happening again."

"Compassion is a key philosophy of the school," Kurumi said. "We feel we have to hope others can be redeemed and forgiven. It's one of the main things that separates us from…" she glanced back to Ryoko. "…the old school. For the most part it works. Some of our biggest allies used to be deadly enemies."

"Our first check-up didn't find the sort of damage we'd expect from repeat dislocations," Tsunade noted.

"Chi-enhanced healing handles some of that," Kurumi said. "But you may also want to check to see if she can actually feel pain rather than just ignore it. We had a training accident once with one of the Kunos that could have been avoided if she had been aware that her body was giving out ahead of time."

"We'll look into it," Tsunade said. "Your overall diagnosis?"

"She's survived," Kurumi said. "She's her brother's sister. Creates her own techniques, adapts techniques to her own needs. She already has a firm grasp of chi, though she doesn't do as much with it as she could, and she's clumsy with it. Maybe related to the other problem you told me about?"

She took a deep breath and looked over at the girl.

"The girl's going to need a lot work on her emotional backbone," Kurumi continued, "but I've seen you guys already working on that. It is strange, most people Genma trains come out arrogant, not meek. Still, it probably means she'll be more cooperative with her treatment or training or whatever you want to call it."

A few yards away, Jubei was questioning Ryoko exhaustively. Naruto and Hinata were expecting that Rock Lee and Might Guy would be paying the girl visits in the near future, but it wasn't top on their lists.

Hinata, byakugan active, whispered quietly into Naruto's ears as she lip-read the discussion between the hokage and the Tadashita-ryu mistress. Naruto's frown turned deeper with each new diagnosis.

The Uzumaki mood was about to get worst as he noted a shinigami in the distance bearing a message in his hands. The spirit's expression was not pleasant.

Oh yes, Genma Saotome would wish he was never born fairly soon.


End file.
